It began with a question
by TheRedGhillie
Summary: A question began it all between them. A series of connected one-shots between Hikigaya and the girl who rejected him all those years ago, Orimoto. Chapter 5: It began with a first impression: His relationship with the past has changed him; Realizing it, understanding it, accepting it, all while meeting her parents for the first time. Theme: Past and Present. Topic: Being happy.
1. It began with a text

**It began with a question.**

 **Chapter 1: It began with a text.**

Past.

What an ugly word. Just the mere mentioning of it makes me want to cower over and die in embarrassment, memories of _that_ time of my life came rushing back and I found it hard to not visibly wince in the middle of the light novel I was reading. Just like turning the page of a book, or in my case, a novel, you leave the previous page behind, moving forward using the words from before to understand the story in the current page. That's how it should be.

Constantly turning back to reread is an insult to the author! Pay more attention to the story and appreciate it!

Am I getting out of track?

Where was I?

Oh, that's right. The past.

The past is where mistakes live and where bad memories originate from.

Source: me.

I can attest to that too, mind you. Every mistake I have ever done is in the past, and so is every bad memory of mine. See? Case closed. Proof: solid.

The past is nothing but a holding cell for regret, questions and answers that maybe should/shouldn't have been asked or answered. That is the cruel truth.

But, just like most cruel truths, people have the tendency to flat out reject the truth about the past the moment it rears its ugly head in.

Where am I going with this? Well, my stance on liars, cheats and superficial-types has been made obviously clear in the past, but…

Those that look to the past for fond memories or times of success are as two-dimensional as they are egotistical, only bothering to remember times they did well or when life was good, but the moment something embarrassing comes along they'll try their hardest to repress and later forget the mistake or, even worse, laugh it off as something that'll make a nice, funny story for the next social gathering, or whatever.

Bastards.

My past has been full of failures and embarrassment; I'm more than aware about that. But unlike the majority of the population, I look to the past in search of my mistakes to _learn_ from them. Yes, I, Hikigaya Hachiman, loner extraordinaire, purposely put myself in the painful position of digging through my past in search of every mistake I have made to develop into a better person. No longer will I misinterpret an innocent act of kindness into something more than what it truly is! No longer will I be picked up by the actions of a nice girl! No longer will I make brash comments about a woman's age…! Maybe.

I'm still learning in some aspects, obviously, but the effort is there! That counts for something, right?

Right.

Yes, while others shrink away from their past and make the same mistakes over and over, I'll be living the easy life having the knowledge of my past as a guide into the future to minimize any and all mistakes! I'll be self-reliable, just like I am now, and won't have to rely on anybody like those that wish to ignore their past and be completely caught off guard when they mess up for the nth amount of time.

Look to the past normalfags, learn from it and grow to be better like me! Don't casually ignore the bad and take only the good! Take in the bad and forget about the good and grow!

I turned the page to the light novel I was reading, fully aware that I simply put on the notion that I was reading when I was completely focused on my inner monologue. Now this page is hard to follow with a torrent of new names and previously unmentioned locations that were more than likely mentioned in the page before this one.

No matter, I'll just turn back a page and read up on what I missed.

…

Now it makes sense.

Now I know that it looks like I contradicted myself with turning back to read a page when I should have been paying attention, especially since I made it clear how I feel about that kind of thing, but just hear me out for a second.

I got careless and missed one, _one,_ page from this novel I've given my undivided attention to for the past couple of days, nothing too serious. Surely the author of this novel would understand, just this once.

…

I was so distracted with my own inner monologue I didn't notice how quiet the clubroom was until just now. Well, quieter than usual, at least. The Service Club was on what you would call a dry spell, meaning we haven't gotten any requests or visitors – Isshiki aside – for the better part of two weeks now. Which was fine by me.

The prospect of having to work is hellish as it is, but having to work for the troubles of others?

Yeah, no.

If it could stay like this forever, then I would be more than okay with that.

I glance up from my novel to see what my fellow service club members were doing. Yuigahama was doing what she was always doing when she wasn't talking to Yukinoshita, texting. The soft taps of her fingers hitting her phone's buttons in an incredible speed could faintly be heard, but at this point I've probably just gotten used to them to the point where I just drone them out when I'm not paying attention.

Next to her sat Yukinoshita, the Ice Queen herself, calmly and almost regally read from a book – in English perhaps - in her possession.

Sensing an insult coming my way, I instinctively set my eyes on my cup of tea before me just as she glanced away from her book. Did you sense me looking at you, woman? Are these eyes that vile?! It seemed to have worked considering I still had my entire HP left and the fact that the room remained quiet.

See? It pays to remember your mistakes! If I hadn't bothered to learn from all the times a simple glance has gotten me insulted I would have suffered the same fate here today! Still, there's an almost disappointed-type feeling in the clubroom from this event that didn't happen.

Wait, does that mean I was meant to be insulted today?! Ugh…

How… depressing.

I bring the cup of tea closer to my mouth and blow several times before taking a small, experimental sip. Pleased that I didn't burn my sensitive tongue this time around, I take a bigger sip of the already cooled tea and relish the taste before going back to my novel.

This is what it means to understand your mistakes and to grow from them! This is what growth and development mean! My past has served its purpose, which means I can now cast it and the horrible, embarrassing memories it brings away!

I'd like to say that.

My eyes wandered from the novel that was recommended to me and fell upon the windows above and behind Yukinoshita. While the novel was a fine read and an even better recommendation, I just didn't have it in me right now to continue reading.

To say I was troubled would be an exaggeration, but not a lie. To say nothing was bothering me would be a lie, but not an exaggeration.

There were two sayings that have been floating around my head for some time. "Let bygones be bygones" and "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." What triggered my monologue about the past stemmed from what put these sayings in my mind in the first place. The former is more or less around the lines of forgive and forget, so the stains of the past won't taint the future, per se. The latter is more defensive and what my entire monologue was based around, which leads to my current dilemma.

Well, maybe dilemma is too big a word.

Presented with a mistake I made years ago, I may or may not have made the wisest decision towards dealing with said mistake. The events of that day may have also contributed to the sense of unease in the clubroom I've expertly been ignoring.

The nervous glances Yuigahama has been shooting me.

The colder than usual glares Yukinoshita pierces me with.

This unpleasant silence.

If I would have followed my earlier words, this sense of unease, Yuigahama's nervous glances, Yukinoshita's colder glares and this unpleasant silence wouldn't be present right now. And that's what irks me. For all the talking I do about my logical point of view and my ways that I supposedly stick to, I had done the opposite of what I "would have" done.

I lost my way for that short moment.

Chin on hand, elbow on table, I stared at nothing.

"Uh, Hikki?" I hear Yuigahama call me. "Are you okay?"

I turned to her and saw that she had put her phone down. "Yeah." I reply. "Why?"

"Oh, uh, it's just that you looked a little down, that's all." She tries her best to play it off, but even I know how hard it is to break such a heavy silence. Kudos for her.

"I agree." Yukinoshita adds. "You happen to look twenty percent more pathetic than usual."

Urk…

"That so? Tell me; at what percentage am I normally at?"

"In terms of how pathetic you are?" She asks.

I nod.

"One hundred percent."

So I'm 120% pathetic right now?! How cruel! I grimaced visibly.

"Is something bothering you, Hikki?" Yuigahama asks, her tone more confident from the usual atmosphere the clubroom has.

I'm not sure, to be honest. Not knowing if it bothers me or not is what's bothering me, is that a fair response? I answer truthfully.

"No, not really." If it bothered me, truly bothered me, I wouldn't have to wonder if it did or not. Then again, if it didn't bother me, truly didn't bother me, wouldn't I know right off the bat? How troublesome.

"Really?" Yukinoshita starts and I brace myself. "Not your horrid personality, dead fish eyes, or barbaric posture? Surely one of those has to bother you, Hikigaya-kun."

Critical hit, woman! Are you trying to make me faint?!

"Eh, Yukinon…!"

"Hitting all targets, are you? How cruel." I scowl.

We share a small smile before the clubroom goes silent once more. I didn't have to check the time to know that it was close for us to go home for the day; the sun did all that for me.

Seeing that the rest of the club was going to be spent in silence, we all go back to what we were doing. Yuigahama picked up her phone to reply to the several hundred (presumably) texts she got while her phone was down, Yukinoshita drinks from her cup of tea before going back to her book while I look back down to the novel to continue where I left off.

It was only minutes later when it sounded off.

The distinctive sound of a phone vibrating in someone's pocket somehow filled the room, garnering the attention of all those present. Yuigahama holds her phone in place but her fingers stopped and she looks at me nervously, Yukinoshita looks at me and suddenly it feels a little colder. I retract my right arm back and fish for my smartphone in my front pants' pocket.

I open my device and see that it was a text. My phone was one of the earlier models, maybe three generations old now. Not that it meant much, considering a new model pops up every year, adding only aesthetic changes or new confusing updates to the layout.

No thank you, I like my phone the way it is. It did have some problems, though. For example, in its simplicity, my smartphone's notification tab highlights that I received a text, but not from whom, meaning I need to open the text app to see who it was from, which shouldn't be that big of a problem if I hadn't placed the neglected app deep within the phone itself, not as a widget on the front screen. I also can't press the text notification on the notification tab to launch the app instead of looking for it.

Maybe it's time for an upgrade.

"Who is it, Hikki?" I hear Yuigahama ask, but I can't decipher her tone. "Komachi?"

No, it couldn't have been Komachi. She accidentally dropped her phone and cracked the screen several days ago. My little sister is clumsy when it comes to technology.

"No. Her phone is busted right now." I explain, kind of, as I continued my search through all the apps I have. Doing this every time I get a text… I need to change it soon.

"O-oh." She mutters out, almost despondently.

"Now I'm curious as to whom it is." Yukinoshita begins. "For someone other than your blood related sister to communicate with you must be a glutton for punishment. I worry for them."

Hey, hey…

"Does it matter who it is?" I ask, irritated at the questioning and insults being thrown my way. "You and I never ask Yuigahama who she texts. Why ask me?" I found the app, finally.

Yukinoshita prepares herself, but Yuigahama interrupts her.

"It's just that… It's rare to see you get messages, Hikki!" She… she tried to diffuse the situation, but now I feel like crying.

"Yuigahama-san…" Yukinoshita palms her forehead. "Please try to be more considerate in the future."

You're one to talk, Ice Queen! And just because I don't get texts during club doesn't mean I never get texts! I've been texting quite a bit lately, too…

"Eh?" Yuigahama notices my forlorn expression and registers Yukinoshita's words before a blush manifests on her face. "That's-! That's not what I-!" She doesn't know who to apologize to first so she turns from me to Yukinoshita over and over.

I recover soon enough and bring my smartphone to eye level.

I see who sent the text and my eyes slightly narrow before a small sigh escapes my lips.

I close the novel I was reading and quickly place it in my bag, phone still on hand. It was time to go.

I glance at my fellow clubmates and they're both giving me a look I can't decipher. They're concerned, but they don't know why, that's for sure. They _want_ to know for some reason, they want to know who it is, but I shouldn't be the one to tell them. It shouldn't be that hard to guess who it is either, I mean, they were there when it happened.

A part of me considered the possibility that they knew who it was and it was because they knew who it was that they were concerned, but I refused to believe that. They didn't know anything about my past so they shouldn't be concerned over this. But that doesn't change the fact that they _know_ who it was, they _had_ to know; she was the reason why we fell into this uncomfortable state in the first place.

And maybe that was why they were concerned.

I betrayed my words and my opinion on the past in front of them, and maybe they took it the wrong way. Maybe they saw it as a weakness in my character, something they didn't expect. I'm aware of who I am and how I am, just as much as I'm aware of Yukinoshita and Yuigahama's characters too. Seeing a sudden change in someone you think you know causes problems.

Even if they aren't your friends.

How will I react if Yukinoshita or Yuigahama did something so out of character in front of me? Probably not well… It had to do with trust, and whatever amount they had in me was damaged that day.

I may not be their friend, but I am close to them. That can't be ignored or denied.

With that being said, they shouldn't have to worry about that happening again. I was caught off guard that time, it won't happen again.

I can't bring myself to say that to them as it was morbidly embarrassing to even try, but I can't leave things the way they are now.

"It's nothing." I try to shake the heavy atmosphere away as I stand up from my chair, bag on hand. My cellphone goes into my pocket as they stand as well.

The action seems to have a positive effect seeing as Yuigahama and Yukinoshita calm down, relieved expressions appear on their faces.

I make my way to the door as Yukinoshita and Yuigahama begin to clean up as they always do.

"…see you tomorrow." I wave goodbye before I open the door.

"Y-yeah, bye Hikki!"

"Goodbye, Hikigaya-kun."

I felt the atmosphere change before I walked out, it felt nostalgic.

Maybe things would go back to normal soon between us. I would like that.

…

I take out my phone and read the message once more as I walk the empty halls towards the exit. The past presented itself to me recently. The past is where mistakes live and where bad memories originate from. I know this. I know this might be another mistake and I should have stopped this the day the messages started coming, but…

-.-.-

From: Orimoto

Subject: Coffee

Hikigaya~, are we still going to that café after you get out of your club? Text me when you can!

-.-.-

My fingers move and form the reply.

That day, it began with a question.

-.-.-

To: Orimoto

Subject: Re: Coffee

Sure. On my way.

-.-.-

But today, it began with a text.

End

* * *

 **Because this site needs Orimoto x Hikigaya stories desperately.**

 **I plan on making drabbles of this pairing, so give me some suggestions!**

 **These drabbles may or may not be tied together, meaning what happens in one chapter might not necessarily transfer over to the next chapter. That is, unless I mention that it is. Some chapters may be shorter than others, so don't always expect a huge chapter like this with every update.**

 **This is my first Oregairu fic, so I need to know: How did I do? This is a far different style than anything I've ever written so I need feedback. Good AND bad! Props to Loner-kun for giving me the idea to write this!**

 **Please let me know what you think with a review! It helps me get better and motivates me to type!**

 **Thank you for reading, and as always, have a good day!**


	2. It began with a bento

**It began with a question**

 **Chapter 2: It began with a bento.**

 **Not necessarily connected with chapter 1**

It was morning.

The air was fresh, the sun was beginning to shine and if you listen closely you'd be able to hear birds singing in the trees I passed by as I pedaled my way across the streets on my bike. A serene wonderland only few are capable of seeing, truly.

I hated it.

Not only was it morning, it was _early_ in the morning. _Far_ too early in the morning.

Sleep is a precious resource that shouldn't be sacrificed, don't people understand that? I shouldn't even have to bring this up, but I enjoy sleeping. Actually, I can safely say that I _love_ sleeping. If there's a chance that I can perhaps sleep an extra five minutes, I'd immediately take ten instead.

I love sleeping.

Then why am I, a self-proclaimed lover of sleep, awake riding my bicycle at such an ungodly hour of the day? Good question. As much as I'd like to give the answer, I'm afraid I can't do that as of this moment. The reason? Well, I don't know why I'm out here either.

So there you go.

Hachiman Hikigaya has forsaken his precious sleeping schedule for reasons he's not even aware of. How funny.

Not.

The only thing I do know that could give inkling as to why I'm awake when I should be blissfully asleep in my comfortable, _comfortable_ bed, are the last couple texts I received the night before, asking for my presence downtown the next morning – this morning, to be clear – but even when I questioned why, I got no clear answer.

How irritating.

I had thought of disregarding the texts entirely, to sleep that extra hour and a half before class started, but even then, I set multiple alarms to prevent that from happening before I went to sleep.

I was always too nice for my own good. Stupid Hachiman, stupid!

Not only that, but I can imagine the repercussions that await me when I get home later on today. You see, there's a system in place in my home, and tampering with it will only result in problems for _me_. Here's the run down: I sleep in after a set time, giving my younger sister Komachi incentive to barge into my room and pester me until I finally wake up, we exchange our usual commentary that earns us points for one another, I go shower while Komachi makes breakfast then we eat together.

I feel tears threaten to surface at the thought of her barging into my empty room, wasting a wonderful "Onii-chaaaan, wake up!" as she pulls the covers only to find me absent!

Komachi, please forgive your idiot onii-chan!

With her phone out of commission – cracked screen due to her clumsiness – she's more than likely going to harbor that feeling the entire day until we see each other again! There's going to be hell to pay, I just know it!

I yawn, placing a single hand over my mouth as I do so. I'd much rather be asleep right now.

…

Before I realize it, I'm in front of the designated store where I was told to go in the texts from last night. From out here I can see the poor sap manning the cash register inside, his eyes looked heavy from lack of sleep and dependency on caffeinated drinks to endure the no-doubt graveyard shift he was stuck with. The people inside weren't that better off either. I could see cups of coffee of various sizes in their hands, bags full of premade breakfast foods in the other with the accompanying suitcase. The diet of corporate slaves, everyone. They wake up at such an ungodly hour and lack the time to make a decent homemade breakfast that they resort to buying that crap from convenience stores such as this.

It was so horrid I shuddered involuntarily before taking my dead fish eyes away from such a scene.

I take out my smartphone and quickly check the information on the text messages to see if I was in the correct place, and yes, as it turns out I was right where I needed to be. I was also ten minutes early, but that was planned on my part.

I'd rather be early than late, so what?

And now I wait.

Leaning against the wall of the store, I pull out my phone once more and find myself looking back to the conversation I had before turning in for the night. I'm trying to piece together a reason for what brought this on, but I'm not really seeing anything specific that warrants something like this.

I sigh, giving up. Only time will tell why I was called out here and judging by the time on my phone, only four minutes remained before the time of our meeting was supposed to be.

Supposed to be.

I can't lie. I have my doubts about this. Call it suspicion, or maybe paranoia, but there's a nagging thought in the back of my mind that is warning me that this is a ruse; a trick meant to embarrass me. Try as I might, I can't shake the feeling away and it's getting me anxious, just a tad.

Before I realize it, I formed a plan on how to casually get away from this spot if it turns out to be that way. I'd go inside the store, buy something and leave on my bike. That, or just leave before it gets too late.

I'm already forming plans on my escape. How pathetic.

With that realization, I push the thought back, but keep the plan nearby. Hey, you never know.

The previous times we were to get together, I've had these doubts the entire walk/ride there, but she's proven me wrong every single time. Still, I think this feeling of suspicion and paranoia are well deserved.

Orimoto Kaori, the girl I was currently waiting for, has caused me pain before. There's no doubt that I consider her the reason I turned out the way I am now. No, that isn't fair or worded right. My life has molded me to be the way I am now, placing all the blame on her alone is wrong and illogical. She played a small, but important role to my current self, there's no denying that. Not as a tremendous burden, but as the final straw that broke me down into the loner I am today.

It wasn't her fault, it truly was not. I can't in good consciousness blame her for what happened.

An unexpected, unwarranted confession.

A rejection.

A friendship that could have been: broken.

The rest is history.

Ha, thinking back to those days is embarrassing. I grimace, my face hot from the memory.

And now here we are.

She never specified why she asked that question that fated day where the service club fell into that tension we are currently working on getting rid of, but I can probably guess why. There's a plethora of guesses I can make, but all of them are moot if I don't know her motifs, or even if she _had_ motifs.

How confusing.

I check my phone to look up the time and I'm surprised to see that it's three minutes past the assigned time we were supposed to meet. She hasn't been particularly late to any of the previous times we've met together, so my mind begins to race slightly before-

"What," I nearly jump from the voice whispering directly into my right ear. "are you doing, Hikigaya?" I hear her laugh that bubbly laugh of hers immediately as she finishes that sentence.

Y-you're too close, woman! Boundaries, boundaries! I recover from my initial shock of being snuck up on and immediately put some distance between us. Her arms are wrapped around her sides hugging her frame as she tries to control herself. I can feel the heat on my face and can only imagine what I look like right now.

In between her laughs she manages to form a sentence. "Am I scary, Hikigaya~?" She moves her arms up and positions them in front of her as if forming claws of a monster before laughing even harder than before.

"N-no. You caught me off guard." I lamely reply, face still flushed from the embarrassment. "A-and my ears are sensitive…" I add as she calms down.

"Hm, I didn't know that." Orimoto replies in between her laugh's final moments, her cheeks were tinged a dash of pink, no doubt from her fit of laughter. Her brown eyes meet mine and a small smile forms on her lips a second later. "Good to know."

I try my hardest not to clench my heart at the critical hit that she just landed. That's dangerous, you know?! Keep that up and I'll get the wrong idea!

Again!

Ugh…

"I'm sorry, Hikigaya," She begins with an amused breath. "but when you didn't notice me approaching I just _had_ to take advantage of it, you know?"

No, no I didn't. "No, I don't know." I roll my eyes. "How long were you standing there?" She said she had gotten close, but I failed to notice her? I call bull.

She smiles at my initial response, before slightly nudging herself closer to me. "A couple of minutes, maybe? I don't really know." She puts on a thinking face that I can't help but think is cute on her. "I mean, I got here right on time."

What?! Impossible! There's no way she could have been there for that long without me noticing her! I don't see a cardboard box nearby so you have some explaining to do! **[1]**

"You got here early, didn't you?" She asks me, but she and I both know she knows the answer to that. She has a habit of doing that, asking questions to answers she already knows. I don't know why she does that, but I confirm the answer with a nod. "Better early than late, right?" She smiles.

"Better late than never." I correct her.

"Hm?" She tilts her head to the side in confusion, her bangs follow shortly with a little bounce.

"That saying, that's how it goes." I mutter. "You had it wrong."

Her mouth turns into a little "o" after I explain it to her. "Oh-ho! You're really smart, huh, Hikigaya~?" She laughs before she leans her back against the wall where I used to be, a smile stayed on her face. "You go to Sōbu, after all." She confirms her question this time around. "Oh my god," she laughs a moment later "I've been saying it wrong this whole time!" She covers her face with her hands, but she's giggling in embarrassment.

I crack a smile at her actions.

Orimoto loves to laugh. That much hasn't changed even throughout the years, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was one of the reasons she's so popular. Orimoto is a very amiable person, fact. It was because she was so amiable that I felt somewhat comfortable talking to her before _that_ event happened. But popularity is nothing but a mask that is placed upon you, a mask of expectations you have to follow, expectations other people put on you. Source: Hayama.

You either reach to fulfill those expectations or risk falling out from where you stand. As fake a place as it can get, the pedestal where popularity goes hand in hand.

It must be hard, being on that pedestal.

To laugh, to keep the conversation going, to continue being the Orimoto Kaori people know her as. It must be hard.

I remember the rumors that spread before the confession and even more so after it. I remember seeing her react the way she did, eliciting a laugh from her many, many friends at my expense. You can't be friends with everyone, you can't.

Orimoto knows this all too well and so do I.

She follows the crowd, just like all the popular guys and girls do and does what is expected of her. To laugh, make others laugh, keep the conversations going, even at the expense of others.

It must be hard.

"I'm really dumb, you know that, Hikigaya?" She's looking at me with those warm brown eyes that just might be contradicting her smile right now.

"Eh?" I respond a little too fast. Oh, the saying. "Don't worry too much about it. English is hard."

Her expression shifted into a surprised one. A moment passes before a smile spreads across her features. She laughs, but this time it sounded different from before. It confuses me. I don't think I said anything to cause a laugh from her, but it doesn't sound forced either.

I give her a look that I hope isn't too disgusting. Her smile shrinks and she looks to the street ahead, but she focuses on nothing in particular.

"No," She starts again after calming down. "I really am dumb, Hikigaya." There's a pause. "I really am."

Before I can ask what she was talking about she steps away from the wall and reaches for her bag that she placed next to my bike. "I almost forgot the reason why I even called you here, Hikigaya~!" She sounds amused as she places her bag on the handles of my bike before reaching inside.

She wanted to show me something? Another novel, maybe? I can't stop myself from becoming interested in what she looking for in her bag. I'm only human, after all.

She lets out an "Aha!" when she seemingly finds what she was looking for before taking it out of her bag.

She turns around and presents me with a…

"Tada!" She smiles as she presents me with a…

"A bento?" I ask, confused at this. She wanted to show me a bento? The bento was covered in a light brown cloth with a floral design. The cloth was almost the same color as her hair. It was a nice touch.

"Correct!" She laughs almost as if she was congratulating me. She didn't retrieve her arm back to her person, however.

"Okay…?" I don't have words for this situation. It's a nice looking bento, what more could be said?

Her brows furrow slightly.

Uh-oh. I know that kind of movement. I made a mistake!

"Well? Aren't you going to, you know, take it?" She asks sweetly, but at the same time she basically forces it onto me by pushing it against me.

"Take it?" I'm so lost the only thing I can do is repeat what she says. It's in my hands now.

"I made it." She tells me, her hands held one another now that they were empty. She finds her shoes to be a bit more interesting than me the way she's looking at them. "…for you."

I almost didn't quite catch what she said.

Almost.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was blushing furiously right now. You just don't do that, Orimoto! That was almost a one-hit KO! Are you trying to kill me?!

"W-why?" I barely manage to ask.

She glances up at me and smiles; her face was flushed as well. "I… I just wanted to try it out, you know?" She laughs nervously.

I try to regain my composure. "Y-You've," damn "never done this before?" My question wasn't so much about whether or not this is her first time doing this kind of thing. No, rather, it was about the quality of the food. If it were to be at Yuigahama levels, I'd rather know in advance so that I can write a will to leave everything I own with Komachi.

Oh, and Totsuka too.

I'd give my everything to Totsuka if he just asks.

"My mom helped me make it." She answers after thinking for a moment, her tone more stable than it was several minutes ago. "It shouldn't taste bad, I think."

I look at the bento in my hands. Is it really alright to accept this? I mean, it's free food that I don't have to work for, but… this is strange. This IS strange, isn't it?

She made it.

…for me.

"Th-Thank you."

She nods and smiles.

…

I get on my bike and wave her off, the bento box secured firmly in my grasp.

I can see her wave back.

…

Time for class.

The first few minutes of class are uneventful, but then again, that's normal. I'm just looking forward to lunch at this point.

…

Time goes by and before I realized it, I was leaving the classroom for lunch break, bento on hand. I'm nearly out the door when I hear Yuigahama call my name.

"Hey, Hikki!"

"Yo." I greet her in return.

"Where are you going, Hikki? Going to buy lunch?" She could clearly see the bento in my hand, but I think nothing of it considering this has been one of the first normal conversations we've had since that day.

"Hm, no, I got it covered it already." I slightly shake the bento box to make my point.

"Oh!" Yuigahama's eyes light up. "Is that a bento, Hikki?"

Obviously, Yuigahama. You're normally not this slow on the uptake, what's going on?

I nod my head.

"Komachi-chan must have been in a very good mood to make you something like this, Hikki! What did you do?" Yuigahama asks playfully.

The nerve! As if I have to do anything special for my lovely imouto to make me a bento! All I have to do is beg – ASK, I meant ask – ask politely enough and she'll make me one because she loves her onii-chan!

"No," I begin. "She didn't make this."

"O-oh." Yuigahama stammers.

"What about you, Yuigahama? Who are you eating lunch with today?"

"Oh, I'm going to spend my lunch with Yukinon today in the clubroom..." There's a bitter feeling in the air, something else was meant to be said just now but wasn't.

I nod my head once. "Best not keep her waiting, then. See you in the clubroom later on today." I turn around but she stops me.

"H-Hikki, you can join us if you want, you know…" She offers me a chance to join them, a chance to hopefully repair the damages caused from that day. I contemplate the chance, but ultimately I decide against it.

It's obvious that Orimoto had been the cause of the strain in our relationship between one another. Even now, we're stepping on eggshells as we try to repair the damages that were made that day. At this point in time, Yuigahama is the more stable one, while Yukinoshita is still volatile. One wrong move and there'd be irreversible damage that could completely break whatever it is we have in that club. Bringing a bento that Orimoto made is just begging for something bad to happen.

I could lie, but why should I? Lie to keep the status quo and ignore the problem? No, that's not how it should be done, but directly asserting the problem is far too risky as it is now. We need to take this slow.

I apologized to Yuigahama, but I let her know that some other time perhaps I'll join them. The answer was clearly not what she wanted to hear, but nevertheless, she responded with:

"…okay, next time then."

"Sure." I replied.

…

I find myself sitting alone in one of my usual spots outside away from other people. It was in these spots of mine where I would eat my lunches that I had bought minutes before. It was here where I would curse the normalfags in my class who would sit and eat together as if it meant something. It was here where I decided that the concept of youth was garbage.

It is here where I open the bento a girl made for me.

Ironic, isn't it?

The past me probably wouldn't believe this outcome. Hell, even I'm having a difficult time believing this right now.

The bento box itself isn't made of plastic like I had thought it was going to be, no, for it surprised me when I undid the knot on the cloth that covered it to discover that it was made of wood.

Traditional.

Custom.

Expensive.

Not only that, but it's two-tiered as well.

Maybe it belonged to her mother, who around the time of her youth either bought it or received it as a gift. Whatever the case, trying to find a bento box like this in this time and age is difficult without special ordering it from the internet. I take off the lid affixed to the top compartment and see what's inside.

I see pork cutlets, egg rolls and cut vegetables packed neatly in their appropriate place in the first tier compartment, and white rice taking the second compartment. It's as simple as it can get, in terms of looks.

There's no ingredients on the rice that form the shape of a heart like how there is in anime and manga, no. It's just a regular bento, in the end.

As expected.

…

The taste is nothing special either. It's decent. Not excellent, but not terrible either. I think nothing of it until I dig in to the rice, where an image of my younger sister came to mind. Komachi wakes up every morning and gets ready for the day before I do and makes sure there's breakfast on the table by the time I walk into the kitchen. Why does this rice make me think of her?

She happens to make this type of rice every morning.

I never take into consideration how much she does every morning, including waking me and fixing breakfast before we head out to school.

Huh.

I take another bite of the rice and it seems to taste somewhat better than before.

I wonder how long it took Orimoto to make this. Even with the help of her mother some effort had to be done into making all of this. I pick up a pork cutlet with my chopsticks and hold it in front of my mouth.

Effort, huh?

I take a bite of the pork and realize with surprise that it's slightly burned. Not to the point that it takes too much away from the taste, but enough where I can tell immediately that it is burned. Something was off, I can tell.

I take a look at the vegetables and I can see that they are cut unevenly.

There are a lot of flaws in this bento, I notice; some just aesthetic like the vegetables, others in taste like the slightly burned pork cutlets and egg rolls that needed salt.

Didn't she say her mother had helped her make this?

Either Mrs. Orimoto needs help in the kitchen or I was lied to. I'm betting on the latter, considering Orimoto has mentioned that her mother is a stay-at-home wife. I recall my jealousy.

Why did she lie to me, then? So that I would believe I was eating something good? Or so she could cover up any insecurities she has with her ability?

She definitely seemed nervous when she presented it to me, that much I know.

"Idiot." I smile and take another bite of the food she alone had prepared for me.

…

Club had gone well, surprisingly. We conversed more today than in previous days combined. A good sign for all of us, even if Yuigahama seemed a little down today. It's not in my place to bring it up if there's the odd chance she doesn't want to talk about it, so the best thing I can do is see if her mood improves tomorrow.

I'm on my bike, heading to where we had agreed to meet up at by the time my club had ended. The sun was close to setting today, a little earlier than usual. I quicken my pace.

…

I arrive and I see her, her back against the wall where I was earlier this morning. She's on her phone, seemingly entranced by it. It doesn't seem like she's seen me yet so I plan accordingly.

Revenge.

But before I can move towards her, I feel my phone vibrate. She's still on her phone, still failing to notice me.

I check my phone and see that it is a text.

From her.

-.-.-

From: Orimoto

Subject: Don't think about it~

Took you long enough, Hikigaya~!

-.-.-

Defeated already?!

I look up from my phone and I see her looking at me, a victorious grin on her sun-lit face, a curved eyebrow and a shine in her brown eyes.

I could feel my heart begin to bruise with how heavy it's hitting my chest at the sight of her.

Damn…

…

We're walking towards her home, which isn't as far away from mine as one would normally think. We used to go to the same school before, after all, so there was always a chance we'd live somewhat close by.

"Hikigaya~" She says my name in that tone, "how was your day?" She's looking ahead, smile on her lips.

"It was fine." I really couldn't say it was slightly better than normal, i-it's too embarrassing, you know?!

"Oh?" She starts. "Just fine?" There's no hint of disappointment like how I thought there was going to be. She clearly asked because she wanted to know if I enjoyed her bento. She might know by now that I don't get too specific unless I'm asked to.

Might.

"Mm." I nod in response.

"A-and your lunch?" There it is. She's trying to play it off, but are the plants we're walking past really that more interesting than I am, Orimoto?! She's embarrassed.

Too bad, woman, because so am I! She's looking to her right and I'm looking to my left, avoiding each other's gazes.

"Erm," I mutter at first, "w-well it was better than the lunches I usually have…"

There's a hitch in her next step.

"S-so you liked it, then?"

Obviously I did! Don't make me say it out loud!

I clear my throat. "Y-yes."

There's a sigh of relief that doesn't belong to me.

"Oh, good." I can tell she's smiling from her tone.

Which reminds me…

"Hold on." I tell her as I stop moving and begin to dig through my bag. I find the bento and I give it back to her.

"Oh, you even tied the cloth back on and everything." She sounds surprised. Of course I did! I didn't want to lose it!

"Thank you." I tell her once we begin walking again. We're close to her house and the sun had just set.

"Hm?" She looks at me. "Thank me for what?"

What?! How could you not know what I'm thanking you for? It's in your hand right now, woman-

She smiles at me.

Clever girl.

I roll my eyes and she laughs that bubbly laugh of hers. I shake my head and can't hold back the tinniest of smiles from surfacing.

"That look," She laughs "you had on your face!" Yeah, yeah, get it out of your system… "Oh my god." Her laughing never stops does it?

I don't mind if it never does, actually.

We arrive at her house.

"The bento." I begin again from before. She looks at me with those brown eyes of her. "Thank you for the bento."

I can see the smallest tinge of pink smudge her cheeks thanks to the light of her porch.

She laughs nervously, avoiding my dead fish eyes. "H-Hikigaya, you, you already said thank you, you know?"

I nod. "I know."

"W-was it that… was it that good, or what?" She jabs glances at me.

No, not really. It wasn't excellent, but it was far from terrible. I'm not one for stretching the truth unless I need to, and this is no exception.

"There's room for improvement, obviously." I see her deflate slightly from my comment. "But I liked it."

Her smile returns and her brown eyes meet mine.

That day, it began with a question.

"T-then tomorrow…"

But today, it began with a bento.

~End~

 **Wow! So much positive feedback from the first chapter! I'm very glad that so many of you enjoyed the first chapter! To be honest, I was afraid not many would like an Orimoto x Hikigaya story, but all this positive feedback started to change my mind!**

 **Of course, there are still those of you who are indecisive about what to feel towards the ship, but hopefully I'll be able to change your minds and make you all see how good this ship could be!**

 **Orimoto's character hasn't really been established in either the novels or the anime, so I had to work with the little I had, so I hope you guys and gals like my interpretation of her!**

 **There are some similar questions floating around in the reviews that I think I should address now.**

 **First and foremost: "What happened** _ **that**_ **day the story keeps on referring about? What question did Orimoto ask Hikigaya in front of Yuigahama and Yukinon?" Wouldn't it be great if I answered this frequently asked question? Yes, I think it would be great. But I won't. Not now, at least. In fact, I've given enough clues in the first chapter – and some in this one – that it shouldn't be too hard to guess what she asked him. That's up to you, the reader, to decide. For now. I might actually reveal what the question was, but not into way later. I think not revealing what happened** _ **that**_ **day adds to the story, as it doesn't hold me in a concrete place. This helps me think of new chapters on a whim as I don't have to worry too much about continuity unless I make a new scenario that'll be split up into parts. The question is significant though, I mean, the title revolves around it, after all.**

 **Next question: "When does the story take place?" Ah, timelines. My worst enemy. When creating the event that will tie most – if not all – of the drabbles together (the question) I had difficulty on where to place it. I needed to make sure Orimoto had already been introduced and I needed to find a significant place where the event can happen. Obviously, the double date with Hayama, Hikigaya, Kaori and her friend came to mind as a near perfect time to place the event, seeing as how Yuigahama and Yukinon are also present near the end of it, but I was reluctant due to the school presidential election taking place at that time. The next obvious time to place the event is during the Christmas collaboration arc, but seeing as how close it was to the end of season 3, I decided against it. The thing about time, is that it restricts you. Plain and simple. With that being said, time isn't a big factor in this story – they're just drabbles, after all – but I can't guarantee that I won't throw in some references to events that happened at so and so time on the timeline. To make it easy, this story takes place after all the major characters have already been introduced and that's as detailed as its going to get. Will there be plot or character development? Yes, and no, actually. Seeing as these are just drabbles, having plot seems a little strange and so does having character development, but all the elements are there, you just need to pay attention.**

 **I think that about does it with the questions.**

 **Please review! All of these reviews for chapter 1 gave me the motivation to work on this chapter and look at that! Over 4,000 words! And so quick too!**

 **Let me know what you guys think of this chapter with a review! Good or bad feedback, anything! I'll take it all!**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed typing it!**

 **Thank you for reading, and as always, have a good day!**

 **-TheRedGhillie**


	3. It began with a study session

**It began with a question**

 **Chapter 3: It began with a study session**

 **Not necessarily tied to the previous chapters**

~Start~

I can spin a pencil between my fingers.

I'm not saying that I'm particularly proud of having that as a talent, many others can too, after all, but the matter still stands:

I can spin a pencil between my fingers.

Yes, a talent such as this one comes only with endless hours of practice – hours that a loner like me has in spades – and dedication. I'm pretty good at it too, if I do say so myself. The speed of which the pencil travels between and around my fingers is nothing short of amazing, nothing short of mind-blowing.

I'm not saying that I'm particularly proud of having that as a talent, I'm really not, but if any words of praise or amazement come my way I'll happily take them. Once again, not proud.

Okay.

Doing this, spinning a pencil, helps pass the time, I find. There's something about the sophisticated movement of something as rigid as a writing utensil in my hands that just captures my dead fish eyes and keep them locked on. I take a moment to think if this is strange, being so enamored by my own actions that time seems to fly by, and as dirty as I made it sound, I know the answer:

Not really.

What with my technique, _anybody'll_ get caught by the mesmerizing motions coming from my hand. I'm so positive about this that I can feel a rebuttal coming from the universe to dampen my mood, but it never comes.

I sigh.

The fact that I myself acknowledge that the universe is against me is concerning and a little sad, but oh well.

I take my eyes off of my hand and focus them on the paper before me, giving it an once-over one more time. Everything seems to be correct, which is to be expected considering the subject is Japanese, my specialty, but something catches my attention near the bottom of the page.

There's a stray pencil mark uncharacteristically present there that I don't recall making.

I like my papers to be tidy, if possible, by the way.

It's really nothing to get worked up over, I know, but that doesn't stop me from quickly assassinating the stray mark with the eraser on the bottom end of the pencil I was previously spinning between my fingers.

There, mistake gone.

…

I'm just about ready to carry on with spinning the pencil between my fingers, but I pause as I notice something about it.

It has a smear, not the pencil, but the eraser.

It's an ugly contrast to how it used to look, a black smear on what was once a white eraser.

The mistake is gone, but not forgotten I guess.

That's a funny – but not really – way to look at it. You can try all you want, but you can't completely get rid of mistakes. They find a way to stay.

You try to erase one? You get a dirty eraser. Try to erase too many mistakes and you get a dirty paper.

You try to white it out? It becomes obvious to everyone you made a mistake and tried to cover it up.

You can always throw the paper away and start again, but not if it's a handout or a document of some kind.

And the pencil?

Who throws away a pencil simply because the eraser is dirty?

No, mistakes find a way to stay. Some way or another.

This pencil is still good, even with the black ugly smear on the eraser stemming from a simple mistake.

One of many to come.

At some point it'll look less like an eraser and more like an abused chunk of asphalt on the road, and maybe at that point I'll consider tossing it out. Even if the pencil itself still had a lot of life left in it.

A healthy pencil with an ugly eraser just tells everyone you make too many mistakes with the minimal amount of times you've written with it.

A short pencil with a clean eraser tells everyone you don't make mistakes even after you've used all the lead writing with it.

But nobody is perfect.

Everyone makes mistakes at one point or another, and mistakes need to get rid of. Everyone also wants to give the image that they never make mistakes.

That's why you see everyone with a separate, stand-alone eraser.

Make a mistake? Erase it.

Another one? Erase it.

Three more? Five more?

Erase them and throw it away.

Get another one.

Repeat.

Overused pencils with clean erasers. All the mistakes in the world. None of the evidence to show it.

Everybody wins. Nobody makes mistakes. Eraser companies thrive.

Bull. Shit.

I place the pencil down on the paper, eliciting a small clap from it hitting the surface of the short wooden table center of my living room. I get up from my sitting position, drawing the attention of the intruder sitting adjacent to me, and walk to the kitchen.

Not all mistakes can be erased so easily.

Not all mistakes can be erased.

Doesn't stop people from trying, though.

To give the image of perfection – to have "clean erasers" if you will – people would do almost anything. They'll follow trends. Dress a certain way. Behave a certain way. Keep their mouths shut or never stop using them.

Separate, stand-alone erasers.

Nobody in their right mind would willingly admit in making a mistake if there's the odd-chance they can get away with nobody knowing about it and those that own up to their mistakes willingly just do so because it is in their character to do so – good or bad.

Everybody wants to be clean.

The world doesn't work like that, no. Just as there is falseness in this world, there are truths. For every pleasant falsehood there is a cruel truth.

The cruel truth in this?

Everyone is smeared with the mistakes they have done.

I catch my reflection on the plastic water bottle I'm holding.

Some more than others.

If I were an eraser on a black road, nobody would be able to tell the difference between the two.

The world knows I've tried.

I tried.

And it is because that I've tried that I have no qualms to make my mistakes known to those willing to hear them. I have no way to hide them, my mistakes, so I don't bother anymore. A dirty eraser can hide mistakes, but it cannot lie.

Successfully.

And that's just the way it is.

Walking back into the living room, my eyes met a brown pair of orbs looking at me.

…some mistakes can't be erased so easily.

The intruder quickly shifts her brown eyes to the bottle of water in my hand before looking back at me. She's sitting on one of my family's floor pillows, her legs underneath the short table I had been using just a couple seconds ago. There's a prep book, some pencils, pens, highlighters and papers scattered across her part of the table. She smiles at me.

She's Orimoto Kaori, the intruder currently in my house.

That's right, intruder. To call her a "guest" would imply that she was invited in, but that's not what had happened, no. She forced herself in to my house, thus, intruder.

She reaches her hand outwards, expectantly.

I don't even bother hiding the way my eyes roll to the side as I hand her the water bottle she's been eyeing since the moment I walked in with it.

It was for her to begin with, anyways, so it doesn't matter.

She smiles once it's in her hand, almost as if that was her way of saying thanks.

I don't say anything, she doesn't seem to mind.

The day is Sunday.

Late morning, early afternoon.

Doesn't matter.

All that does matter is that I'm upset. Upset at the loss of the last day of my weekend for something like this.

Orimoto looks at me and suggestively nudges her head towards the empty spot next to her where I had been sitting before. If this were any other situation than the one we were currently in I might have indulged her, but I won't today.

Upset at the loss of the last day of my weekend for someone like her.

I won't let my weekend be ruined by this.

Not on my Sunday, damn it.

There's an almost puppy-like look of betrayal on her face a second after I walk past her and take to my couch for comfort. I dig out my handheld console from my pocket and power it on as I get comfortable like I usually do every weekend.

I enjoy my weekends. I love being able to sleep in – especially now since I've been waking up earlier than usual, much to my annoyance – all I want into the afternoon where I then laze around playing games or reading a book or even spend time with my sister. The weekends are a magical time for someone like me.

Doesn't she get that?

"Hikigaya!" She whines. "What are you doing?"

Of course she doesn't.

"Trying to salvage the rest of my Sunday." I hope she can hear the bitterness in my voice. Something tells me she can't. "If I can't sleep in today I'll at least play my games." I add.

She lets out a confused "Hoh?" before completely turning her body around to face me properly. "But I thought you said you were going to help me." She's not angry, but she's not exactly amused either.

I glance at her, almost challenging the outrageous claim she spewed out. "I don't remember saying anything like that, Orimoto."

"But in the texts from yesterday-"

"I said that a study session with a _friend_ would help you better prepare for the exam." I strategically cut in before she went on a wrong assumption.

As of recently, our conversations have been revolving around the various exams we have coming up. And while I don't have anything in particular to be worried about, except maybe for mathematics and science, Orimoto expressed her concerns over her ability – or lack of – with English. She was concerned about the upcoming exam, so I gave her advice – empty advice, honestly – on how to go about it.

"I'm here, aren't I?" She doesn't skip a beat with her reply, her bangs bouncing with her words.

Her words and her careless way of expressing them catch me off guard. That's dangerous, don't you know, Orimoto? That carefree attitude of yours can be very misleading.

And it worries me.

"At the very least," she starts, her tone somewhat sad; her brown eyes grow soft with her smile "we're friends, right? Hikigaya?"

I feel my face get warm, but I mentally push it aside. I can feel myself getting slightly upset.

"Keep talking like that and you'd convince anyone, Orimoto." I reply somewhat evenly, my attention back to the game in my hands. Through my peripheral vision I can see her frame slightly droop.

Doesn't last long, though.

"And what's that supposed to mean, Hikigaya?" I can tell she's pouting, but her tone is more confused than insulted.

It means you're a nice girl, Orimoto. A lie.

If you're nice to me, you're nice to everyone. If you can call us "friends" so easily I can only imagine what you say to others.

…

That thought bothers me more than it should and that alone worries me even more. I'm not sure why, though.

Orimoto and I have history with one another. We used to go to the same middle school together and past the occasional conversations we used to have with one another we had nothing else going for us. Even back then she was nothing but a nice, pretty girl that treated everyone kindly, including me, social outcast in the making. It was her nice personality towards me that made me misinterpret her neutral feelings towards me as something positive, leading to me foolishly confessing my – more than likely inflated – feelings for her.

It was a mistake.

One of many.

One that can't be erased.

And even after all of that, after all the teasing and whatnot, I still consider her a nice girl.

It worries me.

"It means what it means." I reply halfheartedly, my attention split between my thoughts and on keeping my hunter from being carted. **[1]**

She doesn't seem to like that answer as she hastily turns her attention back to the papers on the table behind her. "Whatever!" She scoffs. "Not like I needed your answer, or anything. I _know_ we're friends."

My eyes narrow at that. She's far too confident in her words. "Why do you sound so sure?"

She's working on her papers so I half expect for her to not respond, but after a couple of seconds of silence she begins to explain.

"Well, you let me in this morning didn't you?" She suggests.

Wrong. "You practically barged in the moment I opened the door, Orimoto."

"You could have told me to leave." She adds playfully.

"I did. Repeatedly." I retort.

"Most people would have called the police if someone who wasn't a friend "barged" into their home, Hikigaya~." She's taunting me, I know it.

"I still can." I bluff.

"And yet I'm still here." She immediately calls my bluff and shoots me down.

My jaw drops and I'm left stunned, unable to form a single word, partly because what she says is somewhat true.

She's been getting better at dealing with… well, me, I realize with a grimace. And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't getting used to her at all, that too I realize at that moment. It's not that it's too hard to believe, we have been talking with one another for a while now and our interactions together have turned into a daily thing, after all, but… it's strange.

I had _seen_ her through the glass on the door before I even reached for the doorknob; I saw that she had her schoolbag with her, the texts from the day before were still fresh on my mind. I could have easily connected the dots in the short moment before I opened the door, but…

She begins to hum a tune.

…but I didn't.

If I truly didn't want her here, I wouldn't have opened the door, I would have been more adamant in telling her to leave, but I don't think I have it in me to call the police over something like this – but if it had been a certain pretty boy with his clique outside my door I'd have no qualms in dialing the authorities as fast as possible.

Maybe she knew that.

Maybe she knew that and came in with the confidence she had, knowing that I probably wouldn't have done anything serious to get her to leave. To take advantage of that fact.

Maybe.

There's a sadistic charm towards believing in that possibility, but, no, no I happen to know better. I happen to know _her_ better than that.

I'm not looking at my game anymore, giving my attention to the girl who had suddenly stopped humming as she seemingly got stuck on a problem.

Orimoto is a nice girl to the core of her being. Kind to anyone she sees, her carefree attitude makes her very easy to approach. She has an air about her that gives the implication that she's not above or below anybody, not necessarily on par with those around her either, but she's… there. It's this common ground between both extremes that she has that makes it so easy to get along with her, at least, that's what my thoughts are. But nobody is perfect.

Not even Orimoto.

Her carefree attitude in her words and actions can come across as rude or as blunt to those who don't know her. Her words can hurt – I know this personally – but there's no malicious intent behind them, there never is. All bark and no bite, as the saying goes. What may look like teasing coming from her is actually nothing but her joking around. She doesn't have it in her to be mean, doesn't have it in her to be _genuinely_ mean, at least. She has every tool at her disposal to be the biggest bitch the world has come to know, but that isn't her.

Even the prettiest flowers have thorns.

So what does this all mean?

Orimoto didn't come to my house to take advantage of the fact that I have trouble saying no to her. She isn't like that. She came because she thought I could help her with her studying.

And I let her in and let her stay because… I'm… I'm not sure, honestly.

When I came back from my thoughts, the words "Quest Failed" were on the screen of my console. I think nothing of it before I put it aside, my interest in it completely gone. I sit up from my laying position on my couch and absentmindedly stretch upwards, but not too take a peek at her paper, mind you! I'm just stretching!

Suddenly, her body seems to give out and her head collides with the table.

"O-Oi, are you-"

"Hikigayaaaa~ help meeee…" I can faintly hear her pathetic whine for help.

"Seriously?"

A sniffle is all I get as a reply.

…

"This is what I meant when I said you should have a study session with a friend…" I mutter as I look at the paper she was working on.

"But-"

"A friend that is taking the same class as you." I cut her off. Her paper is dirty with stray pencil marks, half erased answer choices and chicken scratch littered everywhere. "It would have made things easier."

As someone who likes their papers clean, this is painful to look at. Luckily for her – and for me – this is just a regular sheet of paper she's copying the questions from the book on and not an issued document from class.

"But aren't you like, super smart, Hikigaya?" She's in a far better mood than she was when she had cried for help. N-not that I care. "This should be a piece of pie, right?"

"Cake." I correct her.

"Hm?" She tilts her head in confusion, her bangs follow shortly with a little bounce.

"That saying, that's how it-"

She cuts me off with a frantic shake of her hands. "I know, I know I got the saying wrong! I told you I need help, Hikigaya~!"

"Yeah, well, English is hard. Don't worry too much about it." A grin finds a way to my face at her blatant irritation.

"It's like, _super_ hard!" She corrects me with an exasperated sigh. "It's so confusing!"

I nod, but only for show. Comparing the questions from her paper to the kind I get in my English class, however, I can immediately notice the degrees in difference. Is Sōbu really that different from the other schools?

"So, can you help me, Hikigaya?" She asks me one more time, almost as if I had been discouraged to help once I took a look at her paper.

English is not that hard to get used to. It's a steep climb in the beginning, sure, but it isn't impossible.

The hard part is getting introduced to it, everything after falls into place.

"Hm, yeah." I respond slowly. "This doesn't look all that difficult."

There's a brief pause in our words when it's her turn to reply. Curious, I shift my eyes to my right and the first thing I see is her smile – a warm one, an assured one.

"I knew you'd help me." Her hand reaches out and lightly grabs the paper in my hand, but doesn't tug on it or pull; rather, it stays suspended between us.

I'm not as affected by this as I thought I would be, because maybe in some way, I knew so too. When it came down to it, when she first started saying she needed help, maybe I had unknowingly already decided that I would help her if she came my way.

It would explain why I responded to her text earlier this morning when she asked if I was awake, why I was ready when she first knocked on the door, why I let her stay.

I don't think I can blame my kindness for this whole thing, I mean, would I do the same for anyone else? Would I do the same for Yukinoshita? For Yuigahama? I'm not sure.

And that worries me.

All this constant exposure that I've had with her these past couple of months has done something to me. Something I can't place or something I don't want to think about.

And I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

She motions the paper down onto the table space between us before pointing out a specific problem.

And so we begin.

…

"Hey, hey, Hikigaya~!" I hear her calling my name with excitement. "I think I finally got it!"

"Finally." I can't help but sigh. We have been at this for more than hour now, so can you blame me for being a little relieved? No, no I didn't think so.

She nods, missing my sarcastic tone. "Totally! Come look, come look!"

I shamble over to her from my position on the couch and sit down next to her. Orimoto places her paper on the table space between us and inches her body closer to mine as if to get a better angle on her end.

I try to ignore it.

The first thing I noticed once I saw her paper was that she didn't use a pencil this time around.

"Why did you use a pen?" I ask her. "You can't erase ink."

She nods, her smile shining something mischievous before she responds. "I thought if I used a pen it would force me to try harder not to make a mistake, you know?" She laughs afterwards. "It's totally dumb, but I just thought…" She mutters the rest of her sentence to the point that I can't understand her anymore.

"I see…" I don't know how to respond to that so I try to move things along. "Let's look at problem one."

She breaks out of her stupor and nods. Her hand slides the paper closer to me, the rest of her body following suit seconds later. Our shoulders are touching and before I can ask what she's doing she interrupts me.

"Did I make a mistake, Hikigaya?" Her right hand is on the table, finger on the question, but her eyes aren't focused on it. They're focused at me.

My face feels like it's about to catch fire at the close proximity with her. Damn her carefree attitude! It needs to be nerfed! I want to tell her that she's too close, I want to move away, but I don't, or maybe I can't.

I'm frozen in place, at least, that's what it feels like. I'm nervous – more so than I normally should be in this kind of situation – but I'm also anxious for some reason. I can feel suspense begin to build, almost as if this were similar to the scenes right before the climax of a horror movie. You can see that something is about to happen but all you can do is wait.

That is how this feels like.

This isn't the first time I've felt this, either. This feeling only comes when I'm with her, I know this, but it never reaches a conclusion – the climax is never reached and the buildup isn't normally as strong as it is now.

Despite what I _want_ to say and what I _want_ to do, I stay still and let our close proximity remain. A part of me wants to see what's going to happen if this continues, if this suspense finally reaches a conclusion and yet, there's another part of me that is terrified to find out.

I release a breath I wasn't aware I was holding and glance at her paper. T-that's what she's referring to, after all.

"Is it wrong, Hikigaya?" She repeats herself, her tone is hard to decipher.

The first problem… she got it right. "N-no, it's not." I tell her, stammering on my words.

Her left shoulder rubs against my right one as she lets out a relieved sigh. She's in my personal space now, basically leaning on me, her left arm dangerously close to my right side. She taps on the next question with her finger, but her eyes are more or less still focused on me.

"A-and this one?" She stumbles in her words, her face rosy.

P-problem two… I find it hard to look away, but I can see that she got it right as well. "…correct. Y-you got it correct…"

"So…" she nods slowly, "…It's not wrong then, Hikigaya…?" The way her body approaches mine is slow and careful, almost like a predator stalking its prey. She wants confirmation to something she already knows, again.

"…no, it isn't." It feels as if there are two conversations going on and I'm answering to them both simultaneously.

"I don't want to make any more mistakes, Hikigaya…" She softly tells me. "…but if I do, I want you to tell me, okay?" Her tone is somewhat serious, but there's emotion behind her words; anxiety, and fear. The deep blush that spread across her face is the only indication that she knows what's going on and is as nervous as I am.

What's happening right now?! My heart is racing! There's a pressure in my chest that feels like it is about to explode! I'm not used to this kind of thing at all! My hands grip the floor pillow I'm sitting on, giving me a sense of security – a sense of balance that I sorely needed right now.

We're staring at each other, her warm brown eyes locked with my decrepit fish eyes, but through my peripheral vision I see her right hand move when her finger taps on the next question.

"What… about this?" She asks me mere seconds before I feel one of her fingers from her left hand stroke the back of my right hand under the table. "I-Is this wrong…?"

My mind shuts down for a moment and I don't have it in me to properly react to this otherworldly situation.

How does a stranded man react when they first meet land after seventeen years of floating in the ocean…?

How does a man stuck in a desert for seventeen years react when he first finds water…?

They don't react.

"…did I mess up, Hikigaya?" I can hear Orimoto ask me, her finger on the back of my hand went still.

I'm not sure what possessed me to think that she was still talking about the problems, because when I foolishly broke our stare to look at the paper she interjected.

"H-Hikigaya." I freeze before looking back at her. Once my eyes meet with hers again, she asks one more time: "…did I make a mistake?"

This isn't like her. Nothing is ever this serious when I'm with her. She's all laughs and smiles. She's _supposed_ to be all laughs and smiles! But right now, she's not doing either of those things. Nothing is _ever_ this serious with her, or, or maybe it just never gets _this_ serious as the time we share together is normally short! You're supposed to be blunt, Orimoto! Why are you beating around the bush like this?! Better yet, why are you even doing this?!

What brought this on?! The atmosphere?! The room?! The situation itself?! I… I don't know!

I'm lost.

This isn't like me. I _know_ that this isn't like me. I could easily move away from her right now, call whatever this is off, and get my senses back, but I don't. All of this seems off, it doesn't match what would happen to me at all! I'm supposed to be a loner and loners _don't_ have experiences like this! A loner like me… doesn't have experiences like this.

Her warm brown eyes darken at my silence; her finger begins to move off of my hand.

 _Damn it all!_

"…No." She stops. I stop. "…you… d-didn't make a mistake." My heart is pounding, threating to break out from my ribcage. The intensity of the blush on my face matches the one on hers.

What have I done…?

This feels like a recap from _that_ day! This isn't like me! Then why am I doing this?!

"S-So it's not…I'm not wrong…?" Damn her constant need for confirmation! I shake my head.

"No… you're not." It took me a moment to finish my sentence. Too embarrassing! All of this is too embarrassing! Stop making me do stuff like this, Orimoto!

I feel her finger land on the back of my hand again. "Then… how about this?" I can feel her other fingers dig into the space between my hand and the pillow I'm clutching until her hand is simply laying underneath mine, her thumb lightly cradling the back of my hand with soft strokes.

"What… what are you-" I try to talk but she cuts me off.

"I-Is this wrong…?" There's hesitation in her normally confident voice, her hand tenses up.

"N-no, I…" I'm mumbling like an idiot now. There's an expectant gleam in her brown eyes, a product of her mind in war with itself. Her confidence is deteriorating right before my eyes – her very character is wavering.

And it worries me.

It worries me.

She worries me.

Orimoto Kaori worries me.

And right now, _I'm_ worrying _her_.

 _How did it get like this?_

It isn't guilt that pushes me forward. It isn't pity. It's something…else.

"…no." I answer her, voice intact but not confident. "It isn't wrong."

I feel her hand relax underneath mine. She's relieved, very much so, her smile that has been absent for a good while tells me so. "This isn't wrong, Hikigaya?" She gives my hand an experimental squeeze, soft yet firm now that she got confirmation.

"No." I'm still nervous, but this doesn't feel all that terrible… "…n-not at all."

She leans in closer, her… soft… her… Orimoto's _Orimotos_ are against my arm.

"And this…?" She asks, her smile is something else.

I swallow and answer. "No."

She gets closer. "Am I wrong, Hikigaya~?"

I don't budge. "N-No."

Even closer. "Hikigaya-"

"No."

Her face is not too far away from mine now. My heart feels like it's been given a dosage of adrenaline with how hard it's beating. Judging by the way she's looking at me, I understand I'm not alone in that sentiment.

"H-Hikigaya…"

I hesitate. Her hand squeezes mine, once, twice, and she waits, her lips slightly parted, her eyes focused on mine.

This isn't like me…

…but is that a bad thing?

"…No."

She smiles and makes her move, leaning towards me slowly.

I brace myself, ready to take a punch if necessary.

The door opens.

"…onii-chaaan… are you awake?"

She stops. I stop. We're both frozen in place, our lips just inches away from one another. Our eyes are wide, locked with one another.

I inhale and back away from Orimoto, not at all ready to suffer the consequences that await me. Orimoto looks morbidly embarrassed as she does the same. Our hands separate.

I turn to the door and see my younger sister, Komachi, rubbing her eyes from just waking up. Her ahoge is limp; the little hair atop her head was slack towards her face. There's hope.

There's _hope_.

"H-hey, Komachi." I greet my younger sister, who had still not finished rubbing her eyes. "How did you sleep?"

"Morning, onii-chan…" She mutters and stretches. It seems like we're in the clear until her eyes shoot open in realization. "Onii-chan?!"

Uh-oh.

"You're awake?!"

What.

I can't help but frown. My little sister can't be this dense!

Before I can say anything, I hear Orimoto begin to giggle, turning into a laughing fit seconds after. And just like that, with Orimoto's laugh, the tension just disappeared.

Komachi looks at me, blinks, and then looks at the still laughing Orimoto.

Orimoto calms down, but not before Komachi herself begins to giggle. My cute little sister clutches her head, a confused smile on her face, and turns to the door.

"…Onii-chan awake this early on a Sunday…? With a cute girl in the same room as him…? Haaa… I must be dreaming…" She leaves the room, her hands rubbing her eyes some more.

There's a moment of silence.

Orimoto laughs even harder than before.

…

Just like the previous times, once the tension had all but disappeared, it stayed that way. As if nothing had happened.

Half an hour after the event, Orimoto begins to pack up her stuff into her bag and I walk her to the door.

"Thanks for everything, Hikigaya~! You'd make a good teacher, you know?"

The thought has crossed my mind before, honestly. If someone like Hiratsuka-sensei can get that kind of job, what's stopping me?

But I shake the thought away.

A house-husband is my future.

"Don't mention it." Seriously don't.

"I think I'll do great on my exam thanks to you." She tells me, her smile wide. "Thank you, Hikigaya." She thanks me one more time.

I nod my head, creating a silence that isn't necessarily awkward, but it isn't very lively either.

"I'll get going now." She opens the door and goes through it, only turning around to say: "Bye-bye, Hikigaya~!"

The door closes and the rest of my Sunday is left to me.

…which is good.

Great even.

…

I can't lie, there's a bitter taste in my mouth at the way things ended today. My face is flushed as I enter my living room where it – whatever "it" means – could have happened. I look to the table and am surprised to see that Orimoto had forgotten her pencil. I pick it up and inspect it.

Its eraser is all but used up, black from the countless mistakes she had made today. I think of throwing it away, but it finds itself in my pocket, I mean…

Who throws away a pencil simply because the eraser is dirty?

I take my spot back on the couch, console in hand ready to start that quest again, but before the game loads up, there's a knock on the door.

I'm not one for getting excited, but I doubt there's ever been a time that I've ever gotten out of my seat faster than I have right then and there.

I see her before I even open the door, thanks to the glass on the door. My heart can't help but skip a beat, overused cliché I know.

The door opens and she barges in, nearly tackling me.

Her head digs into my chest, her left hand scrambles in search of my right hand. When she finds it, she lets out a deep breath into the material of my shirt and squeezes my hand tightly.

It all comes rushing back to me. The tension, the emotions, everything.

I squeeze her hand back. She looks at me, her brown eyes lock onto mine.

"I… I make… I've _made_ a lot of mistakes, Hikigaya." She begins, voice slightly uneven. Did she run back over here? "But, I just wanted to let you know… that this isn't one of them."

I can't contain the devastating blush that spreads across my face at that moment. Is this the climax that all this tension had been building up towards? Did we finally reach it?

What does it mean now?

For us?

What are we now?

That day, it began with a question.

"Is this a mistake, Hikigaya?" She gives my hand a squeeze, her head nuzzling to my chest.

"No... No it isn't." I follow suit.

But today, it began with a study session.

~End~

[1] Carting: Common slang in the Monster Hunter games that refers to the act of being knocked out, seeing as you get pushed back into the starting area in a cart.

 **So sorry for the long wait! Had several exams in a row over here in my university that I needed to study for. To make it up, have a slightly longer than usual chapter!**

 **Gosh, this chapter was hard to write, but oh so, satisfying too. Orimoto is a fun character to write as she is a direct counter for Hikigaya in almost every way! In the end, I'm happy with the way this chapter ended up.**

 **Oh yeah, I updated the cover image! Honestly, finding good pictures of Orimoto made me appreciate how cute she is. Seriously, google 'Orimoto Kaori' and witness her cuteness! Anyways, the cover image shows what happens when Orimoto decides to take a surprise selfie when hanging out with an unsuspecting Hikigaya! Do you guys like it? Let me know!**

 **Anyways, thank you all so much for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing! It helps out tremendously so be generous! Please review!**

 **Thank you all so much for reading, and as always, have a good day!**

 **-TheRedGhillie**


	4. It began with something sweet

**It began with a question.**

 **Chapter 4: It began with the taste of something sweet.**

 **A follow up to "It began with a study session"**

~Start~

A person's personality can be matched with the way they take their coffee, the saying goes. Those that take their coffee black are said to be mature, professional and strong like the taste it delivers, while those that take milk, cream and sugar are said to be young, positive and have the tendency to smile more often, laugh more, be more sweet, the works. Whether or not the bottom half of the latter is due to the amount of sugar and caffeine they have in them is still debated.

That saying can go to hell, I proclaim mentally as I raise my frappé to my lips, its overly sweet contents sending a pleased shiver down my spine. While I may certainly be young, I don't exactly look the positive type and my tendency to smile, laugh or being sweet is as rare as finding an animal with a different color scheme in the tallgrass. **[1]**

Then again, I have found myself smiling a lot more often recently. Laughing, too. Being sweet, however, well, _I_ can't say for certain, seeing as I can't really judge myself in that regard, but perhaps a certain brown eyed girl can give the final verdict in the matter, and if her words are anything to go by, well, we have an answer:

" _Super sweet~."_

…so maybe the saying got it right in this _one_ instance, bite me. It should be known that if I were to have heard the saying just a few weeks earlier, it would have been nothing but inaccuracies tied together. I've always liked sweet coffees, the reason behind the more common smiles, laughs and being _"super sweet~"_ is fairly new, I'll have you know. That alone should be reason enough to call the saying a bunch of bull, right?

Well, yes actually, but there's another piece of evidence that disproves the saying immediately:

She likes her coffee black.

Her lips leave the cup after she takes a soft, careful sip, her eyes closed in delighted concentration on the taste. She places the cup on the table, hands around it, warmed.

When her brown eyes open and meet mine from across the table, she lets out a smile.

Orimoto Kaori, the girl before me, the girl who loves to laugh and smile and perhaps be the sweetest thing with a human form –second only to Totsuka– likes her coffee black.

How someone like her can handle such a strong, bitter drink is beyond me, I tell her often.

It's so… so perfectly contradictory to her character that it somehow fits well. For someone as sweet and bubbly as her to prefer the exact opposite of what she is in the form of a drink is a refreshing surprise.

How someone like me can tolerate such a sweet, sugary drink is beyond her, she tells me whenever we venture out into the city for a drink.

She says that I look the type to drink my coffee black, but the fact that I preferred my beverages as sweet as possible surprised her in a nice way, apparently. It made her laugh; the thought that someone like me thoroughly enjoys sweeter coffees over the other kinds pushed her into a giggle fit.

It's not that I _hate_ bitter coffee, I'll drink it –begrudgingly – if there's nothing else, but my tastes just so happened to enjoy sweeter caffeinated drinks much more.

Orimoto, conversely, would rather go thirsty than to drink any kind of sweetened coffee she dislikes them so much. Luckily for her, every single café we have visited here in Chiba have all had coffee to her liking, which shouldn't be surprising considering black coffee – for some reason – is as basic and popular as it can get.

Orimoto doesn't have a reason behind why she likes her coffee black. Not that she needs a reason, mind you, it's just that I find it strange and even when I asked her why, her answer was rather cryptic.

" _I like what I like, Hikigaya. You should know that…"_

So her answer wasn't cryptic, whatever. It's still a little strange, in my opinion.

Life is too bitter, so coffee, at least, should be sweet. That's my excuse, my justification for my preferred coffee type. When everything in life is bitter, the sweeter things, no matter how minimal, turn out to be misleading. An overinflated sensation that is too good to be true; a lie. Not coffee, no. It works as advertised, bitter or sweet, black or not. So why anyone would purposely choose to add more bitterness in their life when they have a choice is beyond me.

 _A little sweetness in a bitter life every now and then isn't too bad, is it?_

My lips leave my beverage, but even without the taste still lingering, I know.

 _No, no it isn't._

The café we're in, an overly modern place that contrasts with how the rest of Chiba looks like, is close to empty with us two, the barista behind the counter and an older man sitting in the opposite corner of us, being the only occupants in the main lobby, the waitresses were out of sight at the moment, perhaps taking a break. The sun was somewhat visible through the large ornamental windows this place had, and by the looks of it beginning to set, dusk was upon us. It's almost time to start heading out, but I push that thought aside.

Her smile faltered only slightly when my eyes returned to her, seemingly aware as to what I was looking at.

I know, I know, Orimoto. Our time together is always short during the weekdays, when we can only see each other after my club, but don't let it bother you too much. I demonstrate this by beginning with a question.

"Ah, what were we talking about?" I ask, pushing the sudden downcast feel away.

She seemingly knows what I'm doing because her smile returns full force a second later. "What's the matter Hikigaya, you tired? You should pay more attention!"

I follow up with mock defeat. "Yeah, yeah, I know." I motion her to continue with my free hand.

She takes the hint. "I was thinking about taking the part-time job they're offering here…?" She offers and I graciously accept with a nod of my head.

I remember now.

"Oh, yeah, you did say something like that."

Orimoto is blessed with the greatest asset of all time: _free_ time. Unlike me, who was forced to join a service club by a lonely, sad, old, single, aging, not-quite-yet-middle-aged teacher, Orimoto can simply go home as soon as the bell rings and do whatever it is she wants. There's envy in my thoughts as I think about it.

Whatever.

"I did, I did!" She responds oddly, but by this point I don't even question it. Her reply is out of sync with the conversation, something I notice she has a habit of doing – abruptly placing stops in the conversation, forcing someone to start it again – and so I expertly fix the situation.

"Why?"

Eh, what's with that look, Orimoto?

"Well, the money, for one." Her retort is quick. "Can't have you treating me all the time, you know?" I raise an eyebrow at her words, but I can't help but agree.

Our little outings are never truly expensive, but any sort of relief for my wallet would be greatly appreciated.

"Sore aru!" **[2]** I give her a thumbs-up before taking my drink to my lips. I earn a laugh from this and I can't help but feel proud at that.

"Oh my god!" Her own reaction seems to spark her on even further on her laughing ride. "Hikigaya!"

I smirk for a moment, but I let it go. "Just for the money, then?" That doesn't sound completely right, so I push ahead.

She wipes her tears and shakes her head, a negative. "Hm, I guess I also want to make friends with the folks from around here, you know, from other schools?" That's more like it. This sounds more like her, Orimoto Kaori. "A lot of people come by here and some may even work here."

There's a need for her to make friends, new ones, fresh ones whenever possible. There always has been that need for her, to befriend those not only close to her, but even those that she doesn't know anything about, those from different schools. People that don't know anything about her.

And while that may sound all good and well, the truth is hardly that at all.

There was a time when I thought of her, of Orimoto Kaori, two-dimensionally, where I took everything about her as face-value, 'what you see is what you get' kind of thing. But, the more I got to know her, the more time I spent with her, the more I began to realize it had been wrong to do that, that I had been wrong in my initial assessment of her.

Well, no, not exactly that either, I need to correct myself. My initial assessment of Orimoto Kaori was right on the money, spot on. She's a nice girl, friendly to all, and popular despite her only flaw being her easygoing, blunt attitude that borders rude and insensitive.

In all accounts, I was right about _her_.

What I didn't account for in my initial and final assessment of her were the _people she was_ _friends with_.

"I think I could make friends here." There's a pained tone to her words.

People can be finicky creatures. I know this all too well from observing them from the shadows. They can be picky, they can be judgmental, and they can be _sensitive_.

Orimoto is an amiable person, friendly to everyone she sees, her carefree attitude makes it easy to befriend her. But what are friends other than strangers that get to know you?

I can see it now, how a friendship with Orimoto starts before it quickly begins to rot.

Orimoto is a nice girl, a lie. Whether a person realizes that before they get to know her or not suddenly becomes apparent during the first moments of a budding relationship with her. Her words are harsh, blunt and often insensitive, but she doesn't hold malice in them – not a single shred of it. But to those who are just getting to know her, her friends, they might not know that and might take her words personally, a jarring reflection of what they thought she was like.

People dislike what they don't know. People _hate_ it when they get something they weren't fully expecting or when it doesn't hold up to their views.

There's a sad gleam in her eyes. "I mean, if I can get them to like me, that is…"

This creates the need for more friends, new ones, fresh ones whenever possible. What I used to think was that Orimoto strived to make so many people her friends as a status symbol she could wear to uphold her popularity, to brag about, "check out how popular I am!" but now that I know the truth, I stopped thinking of her in that way.

I once believed that Orimoto was truly popular, that her friends were loyal to her – I didn't think of them as people, but as an amalgamate of simple characters – and that her need to make new friends everywhere she went simply stemmed from her trying to brag and prove her popularity, but I was wrong. Her need to make new, fresh friends everywhere she went stemmed from the fact that her "friends" quickly got fed up with her innocent-yet-insensitive attitude and would begin to leave her, or worse, begin to resent her, one by one.

She did not look at her friends as something as simple as a status symbol, no. They meant a lot more to her than that. Her befriending someone is the equivalent of dousing a forest fire with a single bucket of water at a time; momentary relief, but not at all effective.

Orimoto Kaori doesn't want to be alone.

Can't say I blame her.

"Friends are overrated." I say going against her, speaking my mind. "You shouldn't let that bother you."

She seemed to have been expecting that kind of response by the incredulous look she gives me.

"…but then again, not everyone is like me." I add a second too late, but she seems to relax with a small laugh.

"Not everyone _can be_ like you, Hikigaya." She corrects me. "I don't know how you do it." She sighs and leans forward onto the table, a small, nervous smile on her lips.

"You get used to it." My reply was so instantaneous it actually caught the both of us off-guard. "Er, I… I got used to it." My correction did nothing for her, some heavy guilt evident in her eyes.

I'm her worst nightmare come to life in front of her: a perpetual loner, an outcast with no friends to speak of or any to speak with. She never did tell me when she began to think that way, but if I had to guess, it would have to have been my confession back in middle school that started it all.

It was only then that she saw what happens when someone is truly alone, I guess. The changes one goes through. It might have terrified her.

"Ah, but Hikigaya you don't have it so bad, you know?" Her tone is hard to decipher. "I mean there's those two from your club… and your underclassman."

Oh? You're bringing up Yukinoshita and Yuigahama, Orimoto? Isshiki as well? That's rare. I have a feeling as to what she's referring to, but I'm not completely certain so I ask.

"Hm? What about them?"

"Well, aren't they, like, your friends?" There's that tone again that I can't decipher.

I shake my head. "No. We're just clubmates, acquaintances at most. And as for Isshiki, I'm just her senpai that she likes to order around." I've mentioned this to her before, a while back, actually. I can count the number of times she's mentioned Yuigahama and Yukinoshita on one hand, but for her to bring them up now means something is on her mind.

"Ah, okay, but…" She nods slightly, a confident smile on her lips "…do they know that?"

Shouldn't that be obvious? Shouldn't it…? I find it difficult to respond with my voice so I simply nod my head. She smiles at my answer, almost as if confirming something only she knows.

"And here I thought you were the smart one, Hikigaya. Hilarious..." She laughs at my confused look before adding "Heh, but no, I guess it's better this way too." There's relief in her words.

"I don't follow." She takes a sip of her – probably lukewarm – coffee and shakes her head, her bangs following shortly after with a short bounce.

"It's fine if you don't, Hikigaya." Her confidence back, Orimoto locks eyes with me as she places her cup down on the table. "I wouldn't expect you to either way."

Oh? If I were anyone else right now, I'd consider what you just said as you teasing me, Orimoto. She seems to notice it too with the way her eyes widen at the realization.

"Just a matter of habit." I stop her from correcting herself, waving my hand to make her drop it.

"You think so?" She sighs, her hands playing with one another.

"Eh, probably." I can't find the right words for this kind of thing. I've been getting better at holding my own in casual conversations, milestones ahead based on how I used to be, but there are still moments when I can't help but land short on what I wanted to say.

"True that." Her response is as abrupt as my previous one, but it somehow seemed to work as she looked slightly more upbeat than before. "I just can't help it, you know?"

I do know.

"It's who you are." I follow up her statement as a matter of fact.

"What a horrible thing to say, Hikigaya! Hilarious!" Her laugh is righteous. "But I guess you're not wrong."

Orimoto knows where her problem stems from, why there's a need for her to make so many new friends whenever she has the chance. She's aware of this, so solving the problem shouldn't be hard, right?

All she needs to do is simply change who she is to avoid upsetting others, right?

It's that simple, really.

 _Fuck that_.

I can feel myself feeling bitter just thinking about it, but the fact that she hasn't tried doing that gives me hope. But I need to know.

"Is it really horrible?" I ask her. I test her.

She takes a look at my raised brow, and shrugs. "I don't know. Probably not, right?"

I let out an amused breath. "Sure."

She sees this and frowns. "What kind of answer is that?"

"I could, like, say the same thing about yours, you know?"

"I'm being copied?! How funny!" Orimoto laughs.

"Only you would find it funny." I let her know.

"Only because it's coming from _you_ , you know?" She lets me know.

We share a smile as a comfortable silence surrounds us. Somewhere in the midst of our conversation, the café had actually done a good job and began to fill up with people of all different sorts. I can't believe I failed to notice the inane chatter going around the café.

Just how much time had gone and passed since we began talking, anyway?

I take a glance of the sky behind her and dully note that we should get going now.

My eyes shift from the windows across from me to her and I see her right arm laid out on the table, hand waiting patiently. She blinks twice, smile on her lips.

A blush begins to manifest on my face as my left hand takes hers, united for the moment. So _bold_ , Orimoto! So very bold! I have nothing against doing this kind of thing – not anymore, at least – with her, I should let that be known now, but to do this in public…with so many people present… I-I'm still not used to it, is all!

"Ready to go?" She asks me, brown eyes on me.

"Y-Yeah, let's go." I reply as I get up from the booth we were sharing. Her hand tugs mine, not wanting to separate as we walked to the register to pay for what we ordered. It doesn't matter if I'm not used to it, I realize, cheeks flushed. The smile on her face as we walk hand in hand across the café tells me I don't have a say in the matter.

Not that I mind, or anything. Not that anyone in this café minds either, I suppose.

We pay for our drinks and exit the café, hands still together.

It's that magical time of the day right now; the time frame between afternoon and dusk, not necessarily day but not night either.

Twilight, I believe it's called.

"Hikigaya." I hear her call my name. My eyes shift from the melding sky to her. "Wouldn't it be, like, better if we ride your bike?"

Even if I ignored the obvious laws against doing such a thing Chiba has, I would say no, simply because I don't really feel like it at the moment.

"Nah, it's too much work to pedal for two."

She scoffs. "C'mon, Hikigaya! Please?"

I can't spoil her. I need to stand my ground and tell her "No."

"Please?"

…

There's something about the twilight hours between night and day that always seem to make me feel melancholic in a good way. And while today shouldn't be any different, it really is. If for whatever reason I'm outside during these hours of the day/night I would make it my number one effort to make it home as soon as possible, pedaling until my legs went sore. Today/Tonight, though, I find myself taking in the scenery of central Chiba in a smooth ride on my bike towards my neighborhood.

It was actually a nice experience to see the streets change from day to night, where smaller stores and stands began to close up for the night while neon signs of different colors began to coat the scenery, prepared for the long night ahead until daytime.

I'm not the only one experiencing this change in common scenery, either. Orimoto is riding with me, seated behind me on the baggage rack, both legs to her left hand side, hands holding onto her seat for extra balance. I turn around to take a look at her and I see the bright lights coming from the convenience stores, restaurants, clubs and shops being reflected against her eyes as we pass them.

She notices me looking at her; I know this because she gives me a warm smile before she wraps her arms around my waist as soon as I turn around to face the direction we're going.

Oi, oi oi, oi! W-What are you doing back there?! I nearly lose my balance at the change in weight distribution, but manage to correct myself before anything bad happens.

"W-what are you doing?" I manage to mutter out in plain shock, and before I can worry whether or not she heard me, she responds.

"I don't want to fall off, Hikigaya." Her words are said as if they were fact. "Is this wrong?" She tightens her grip around my waist and presses her body against my back.

Nice to meet you again, Orimoto's Orimotos.

I steel my resolve and focus on not crashing into anything.

"…No."

I hear her sigh happily.

We travel like this for a good part of our way to her house, with conversation little in between the scenery.

It wasn't until we were more than several minutes away from her neighborhood when she spoke up from behind me. Her tone was curious.

"Hikigaya?" I glance at her as my response. The streetlights we passed illuminated her visage in intervals, but with a single glance I can instantly tell something is bothering her.

"What did you mean back at the café? When you said 'it's who you are'?" Her voice was quiet.

If I remember correctly, the context of the question was her character –who she was- and it was she herself who said it was horrible of me to say that before laughing it off. I know that that alone didn't bother her at all; it might just have given her ideas.

Her words can hurt, whether they are blunt or sharp, but there's no real hostility behind them, and as such, it makes it hard for her friends to stay with her once they get fed up with the innocently-insensitive dialogue Orimoto makes.

"Hm." I nod, letting her know I know what she's referring to. "Well, what else could I mean? You're you."

There's a pause.

"Isn't that bad?" I feel her hands adjust themselves on my waist. She's uneasy.

For someone like her, someone who is by default friendly, it must be very painful to know that her personality is the reason she gains friends easily and loses them even easier.

I can't help but frown.

Her question is a heavy one, not because it is difficult, but because it is too easy to answer for someone like me. For her, the question is jarring.

I sigh and she tenses up, probably predicting my answer before I give it.

"It's who you are." I begin, turning a right into the appropriate street. "Good or bad."

"…but that doesn't answer my question, Hikigaya." She sighs. "I'm losing friends because of who I am." I, myself, am very familiar with that self-deprecating tone she is using right now.

I don't like it coming from her.

"So you already know whether it's good or bad?" I ask her.

"I… I don't know." Her reply is weak. "That's why I asked you."

"Why ask me?" My question sounds harsh, because it needed to sound like it.

"…" She's silent for a while. "Because you're the smart one."

My heartbeat can't help but glitch at that.

"Being who I am didn't get me any friends." There's a breeze. "Not having friends made me who I am."

"What are you talking about, Hikigaya?"

We're getting closer to her house.

"Maybe if I had changed who I was, I would have gotten along with others better. Maybe make friends that way too." This road is far too long with the amount of streetlights little too short. "But it wouldn't have been me, would it?"

It's dangerous, you know?

"Hikigaya…"

"It's who I am." We reached the interval between streetlights. It's dark. "I don't mind being alone so long as I stay who I am." She tightens the embrace, reminding me that she's there.

We reach a long stretch of streetlights closer together. It's bright.

"…You're not alone, Hikigaya."

"I know. I have my clubmates, a bossy underclassman and…"

"…and…?"

"…my younger sister, Komachi, too."

"What! Hikigaya, not fair, not fair! What about _me_?!" She let's go of my waist and begins to hit my back with the strength of a small cat.

I smile and try not to laugh. "…and a cute girlfriend I get to see every day to remind me that I ultimately won against a world so cruel."

I hear her make a slight gasp before she stops hitting my back. Her arms slowly return to my waist in the same type of embrace from before.

"Oh, no… You actually said something super cool, Hikigaya…"

Pride swells up inside of me, but I'm not done yet.

"You're you. If for some reason it is friends you want, then keep trying until you find the right ones that understand." I take a break for air. "If someone like me can get so far without changing who I am, I don't think you have anything to be afraid of."

I can feel her nod her head behind me. "You're right, Hikigaya." She sighs. "I feel so much better now..."

Despite everything I had just said, it made me think.

Have I truly not changed at all since then?

"Good to know."

…

When we finally reached her house several minutes later, she gets off from my bike before I do a second later. We're in front of her house, the light from the porch giving us some light to see each other better.

We're stuck in a comfortable silence that isn't that rare between the both of us. The twilight hour was coming to an end, night approaching, but it still stood; the time when day and night came together.

Two opposites coming together… isn't that something?

I stop looking at the sky and focus my attention on the girl in front of me, one Orimoto Kaori, my girlfriend.

She's working on what to say, hesitating only slightly when she speaks up a second later.

"Ah, Hikigaya…" She begins, but waits for my reply.

"Hm?" I nod my head for her to continue.

"If I do take the part-time job at that café, would you visit me?"

My eyes widen at the unexpected question. So she's still planning on actually taking the job, after all? I can respect that.

"Their coffee _was_ good." She smiles at my words. "If I happen to have the time, I'm sure the staff would be seeing me there quite often."

"Maybe you can take your coffee black next time." Orimoto winks before embracing me.

"There's nothing wrong with something sweet once in a while, you know?" Life is supposed to be bitter, but with moments like these happening more regularly, I feel doubt.

Time isn't an issue at this point, we both know this. I can see the skyline behind her, where the last few moments of twilight could still be seen before it officially turns into night in just a few moments.

"I may like my coffee bitter, but…" Orimoto starts, her head nuzzled into my chest before she looks up at me, her warm brown eyes shine with the light. Her hand shoots up and tenderly cradles my cheek, a smile on her lips as she pulls my face towards hers.

That day, it began with a question.

"…even _I_ know that, Hachiman." Her eyes close and she puckered her lips.

My heart begins to race before I meet Kaori halfway, taking her lips with my own in a very sweet kiss during the final remnants of twilight.

But today, it began with the taste of something sweet.

~End~

[1] Animal with a different color scheme in the tallgrass: refers to "shiny" Pokémon, in which a Pokémon randomly appears with a different color scheme than normal. Super rare.

[2] Sore Aru! Orimoto's signature catchphrase which was translated into "Preach it!" in the anime, but can also mean "That's the ticket!"

 **Hello, everyone! Sorry about the long wait, but lo and behold, I had some more exams to study for because I'm a good college student! ;~;**

 **This chapter was going to be previously something else entirely, but I just wasn't able to make the scenario work so I changed it up, and quite frankly, I like this version a lot better. This chapter gives some insight into Orimoto's character and their now established relationship.**

 **Alright quick question here:**

 **I started this chapter as a follow up to the previous one (** It began with a study session. **) because I saw that many of you had liked it a lot, so I was just wondering: Do you guys, my readers, followers and reviewers, want me to keep going this way from now on? With Orimoto and Hikigaya dating after the events of the previous chapter? I do plan on deepening their relationship with one another with every chapter, going into character development and analysis, but the question stands: Do I continue this way, or keep it the way it was before the events of chapter three? I wouldn't mind continuing from here on with them going out with one another. Let me know with a review or PM, or BOTH!**

 **SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! The ever wonderful author weewah had told me where I could read some recently translated chapters of the latest (I think) volume of the light novel, and get this: there's hints at Orimoto x Hikigaya becoming canon! It was glorious! If you guys want to read them just go to pastebin and search up the user:** "SomeChineseGuy" **and you can find the translated chapters there!**

 **Alright, so what did you guys think of this chapter? If you liked it, let me know why! If you disliked it, let me know why too! Let me know with a review! Reading all of your reviews always brings a smile to my face** _ **and**_ **motivates me to type another chapter as soon as possible!**

 **Thank you all so much for reading, and as always, have a good day!**

 **-TheRedGhillie**


	5. It began with a first impression

**It began with a question.**

 **Chapter 5: It began with a first impression.**

~Start~

I like to think that I have myself pretty much figured out to the point where I can speak of my preferences, habits, likes and dislikes rather confidently, as if they were undeniable truths. Normally, this should obviously go without saying, right? I mean, who knows me better than _me_ , you know?

I know what I like, I know what I don't like, I'm aware of my habits – both good(?) and bad(?) – and my preferences, so I can probably say in good confidence that I have myself figured out.

Probably.

I give myself an once-over in my bathroom mirror, these decrepit eyes of mine scoping out the "new" clothes I decided to try on for the day. Nothing fancy, really, as they aren't necessarily new as they are simply clothes I haven't taken out of my closet since I first got them a couple months ago. Maybe the fact that they weren't particularly "in season" at the time when I got them had something to do with their neglect, but now that it's getting a bit chillier when the sun goes down I think it's appropriate to begin wearing them.

My reflection nods back at me as I do the same, not necessarily Topping things off is a simple black scarf wrapped around my neck. I can't say much about it other than the fact that it's going to fit in pretty well with my growing collection of scarves that seem to multiply every time I take one out. There's no design on this one, surprisingly, as most of my black scarves have something to them that help them stand out.

Under that is a light, dark-blue jacket. This wouldn't do a damn thing if it was to get actually cold, but for how it is right now, it should do the trick. Under that I have a plain black shirt with a long-sleeve white undershirt.

And as for pants, well, I… I have pants on; I'm not sure how to describe them other than "pants," so… Pants.

I can say the same about my shoes, considering I never really took an interest in caring about what kind or brand they are, but if I have to say something about them then so be it: they're black.

I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily happy with the results, but, rather, simply happily neutral at the outcome. I can consider this getup as a casual one, right?

I think so.

I look at my reflection one last time and I can't help but groan when I notice that something is… off… about it. The outfit is fine – I already spent enough time fussing over it to be aware of that – my hair was the same as always what with my little ahoge sticking out at the top and all, but something was still off that kind of irritated me.

I blink, and realize what the problem is. Rather, I figure out what the _problems_ are.

I stare intently at the problems in question and feel irked to see my reflection look back at me with a stare that disgusting.

My eyes are the problem, I noted heavily.

I feel uncomfortable staring at my reflection for so long, something I actually don't do very often. I knew my eyes were somewhat bad, Yukinoshita's remarks constantly remind me of the fact, but I just now noticed how… unappealing they really are.

I shake my head with my reflection doing the same.

No, no, this isn't right. I've _never_ cared about the way my eyes look, or at least, I _don't_ care about the way my eyes look.

My reflection and I look at one another, a bothered expression on his face. This… this can't seriously be bothering me, could it? I focus on my eyes for a second more.

My reflection winces and that's all it takes for me to leave the bathroom, and the consequently negative emotions, behind.

I _don't_ care about shit like that.

I walk to my room down the hall and notice the small, consistent, flashing green light periodically making its presence known near the speakers of my phone that was resting on my bed, alerting me of an as-of-yet unseen notification.

I take a seat and unlock my device, correctly guessing that the notification was of a text. I quickly navigate through my phone and find the correct widget that sends me to my inbox.

The text is from my girlfriend.

Heh, that feels good to say, you know?

She's already out of work and is heading home now, asking me if I'm ready, and if I am, then to start heading there too in a bit.

I reply, letting her know that I'll be there soon. I don't wait for the reply and instead lock my device, something I instantly regret as I see myself in the reflection on my phone's screen, even worse yet, I see my eyes first and foremost and I put my phone away into my pocket, a dejected sigh escaping my lips.

I _shouldn't_ care about shit like that.

I get up from my bed and leave my room, heading for the stairs down the hallway.

I really shouldn't care about shit like that.

And I don't, I tell myself, but I can feel a knot begin to grow in my stomach as I make my way down the stairs. I've always known how my eyes look, how bad they are, but it stopped bothering me when I realized I shouldn't give a damn since I can't do anything about them anymore.

I'm not a lost cause, though. My eyes aside, I can safely say that I'm quite the looker in terms of my appearance. I'm not conceited in any regard, but I find myself to be quite handsome, and while I may not carry myself in such a manner - because finding pride in one's looks is as fake as one can get - I keep that in the back of my mind as a clutch if a day is particularly heavy with rude comments.

My previous statement might have given the wrong impression, I realize. Let me clarify:

I don't hate my eyes.

In fact, I actually like my eyes, even in this state. They make for a good deterrent against social contact, thus keeping my loner status credible. These eyes help keep my status as a loner unquestioned, and I'm grateful for that.

And while, yes, the hostile looks of disgust I get in a regular basis from both guys and girls can get annoying, I think it's a fair price to pay for my preferred sense of solitude.

Yes, these eyes of mine are what separate me from the other loners in this world, a step above them.

…

I can't help but feel even more troubled than before, however. While these eyes are great for avoiding social interactions upon a single glance, the question that stands before me manages to shake my constitution:

What else are they good for?

I never really thought about it before, as I was so positive that I would stay a loner for… for… I don't really know how long, actually. Had I been ignoring that issue this whole time?

That's scary! How long did I honestly think I was going to stay a loner for if I had dreams of being a househusband?! I need to get married first in order to _become_ that! Loners don't get married!

How… worrying.

I shake the negative feelings away, ready to tackle them at another time. Back on the subject on hand:

What good are my eyes when it comes to other aspects in my life other than being a loner at school…?

It bothers me, because as much as I like to say it, I'm not much of a loner anymore, am I? For all intents and purposes I don't have any friends, I have _acquaintances_ , which is normal for a loner, sure, but I happen to have a _girlfriend_ – a cute, loving girlfriend that can be considered to be my exact opposite.

She's bubbly, energetic and has a thing for making friends with many others while my personality is still, lethargic and socially awkward.

I have a cute, loving girlfriend who invited me over to her house to finally introduce me to her parents, who have, apparently, been wanting to meet me for quite a bit. And I'm supposed to appeal to them with eyes like _these_?

Talk about an uphill battle, huh?

…I just used the word "appeal" didn't I…?

…

I… I like to think that I have myself pretty much figured out to the point where I can speak of my preferences, habits, likes and dislikes rather confidently, as if they were undeniable truths. I like to _think_ that, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

I can't remember the last time I tried to genuinely "appeal" to someone before, as that would normally mean putting up a positive image of me to get on the good side of someone. I never liked people who used good-looking images to cover up who they really are – perfect images that cover up their putrid insecurities.

Fake people have an image to maintain with others that are like them – fake people appeal to their kind because they know how judgmental they can truly be, how hurtful they can truly be.

Real people just don't care about having an image. Does that make me a "real" person? I would have answered this question in the past without a second thought with an "Of course!" but now, in this predicament that I'm finding myself in; I have trouble thinking that same way with confidence.

If I were a "real" person as I just described them, then I wouldn't be worried about meeting my girlfriend's parents with eyes such as mine because I wouldn't care about superficial details like my appearance. Right now, however, I don't feel like a "real" person, not with the way I'm fussing over something as superficial as my image.

I'm nervous.

Truth is, I'm _very_ nervous about all of this, and it's not just about the fact that I'm going to be meeting her parents, it's normal to feel that way, right?

Right.

I'm nervous, because, I'm worried about what they're going to think of _her_ when they see the kind of guy their daughter is dating. I'll be the first to admit that I have flaws, so hearing them being repeated to me by my clubmates, teachers and, hell, even my girlfriend's parents doesn't bother me at all, but the thought of her being reprimanded due to dating someone like me manages to send shivers down my spine.

Orimoto – no, sorry – _Kaori_ knows about my flaws, but she's never actively brought them up on her own, never teased me about them since we got together, almost to the point where I've started to think that she ignores them completely. If the topic strays towards me, I'm usually the one to point out my flaws if they match with our conversation to make a point, but they're hardly the basis of our conversation for too long as she's quick to skillfully change the topic to something less serious.

A part of me, the self-deprecating part of me, is worried that maybe her parents will be the ones that will make Kaori open her eyes, make her realize that she's too good for someone like me and she'll be quick to break up with me, or something along the lines of that.

The knot in my stomach tightens up at the thought of that.

I'm more than likely just overthinking this, but I can't shake the feeling of dread out of my head.

What's happened to me…?

That is why I'm having a difficult time staying true to my definition of what "real" people are. I want to _appeal_ to her parents, I want them to consider me _worthy_ of their daughter, and I want to make a… good first impression. A "real" person wouldn't be worried about something like this to this extent, or at least, that's what I always thought.

This feeling is foreign to me, very much so. The fact that I'm acknowledging it to this extent is more than enough proof that I've changed since from before Kaori asked that certain question all those months ago.

I… like to think that I have myself pretty much figured out to the point where I can speak of my preferences, habits, likes and dislikes rather confidently, as if they were undeniable truths, but I've changed as of recently, changed from that version of myself that was so sure of who he was.

Change from a stable position to a new, wavering one is seldom good, or at least, that's what I've always believed.

I reach the bottom of the stairs, crossing the hall into the living room where I found my younger sister Komachi lazing about on the couch, watching some drama on the television across from her.

I walk past her, my right hand nuzzling her head affectionately as a way to alert her of my presence as I say:

"I'm heading out, don't open the door to anyone, I'll be back later." I don't get more than a couple of feet past her when I hear her respond frantically.

"Huh?! Onii-chan, where are you going so late?" She stops, looks at the way I'm dressed and blinks. "Onii-chan…?" Her face is a mixture of curiosity and concern.

Ah, that's right. Komachi is not aware that I have a girlfriend and I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know who Kaori is as a person. My girlfriend is a secret I keep from my younger sister, a secret I keep from her for multiple reasons. Komachi has the tendency to run her mouth when it comes to certain things and her somewhat close relations with both members of my club makes me rethink about telling her that I have a girlfriend. A simple slip of the tongue on the subject could possibly ruin the integrity of my club for good if Kaori is mentioned, and that's something I don't want.

I feel guilt begin to manifest inside me when I see her concerned face because this isn't the first time I've seen it. I've been leaving to school earlier and coming home later than usual, both reasons being the fact that I want to spend that extra time with Kaori. Time and time again, Komachi will catch me before I leave in the morning or when I come back home late at night and she'll ask me multiple questions as to where I was headed so early and why I'm coming back so late in the evening and those questions I try my best to dodge.

I've been neglecting her for quite some time, I know this.

That's something else that's changed about me, isn't it?

…

I'm thinking about what to say when she speaks up, her tone hopeful.

"Can I go too, Onii-chan?" She forces a smile and I can feel my heart begin to wretch at the sight of that.

"Ah, n-no I don't think you should, Komachi. I don't want you getting sick from being outside now that it's getting colder." I lie through my teeth like I've recently been doing. The forced smile on her face dies slowly until it's nothing but a weak grin.

"Mhm…" She nods sadly. "You scored some points there… Onii-chan…"

I'll make it up to you, Komachi, I promise.

"I'll be back later. If something happens, call me, okay?" I see her nod, but her eyes are on the television once more. I pause for a second, look at her sit in the living room all alone, and make my way to the front door.

Is this what change is?

I don't like it.

I really don't.

The door closes behind me and I set off, my bicycle left behind as I opt to walk to her house since it's not too far away. The sun still has a bit to go before it sets, maybe an hour at most.

I sigh.

And I'm on my way.

I turn to the left at the nearest corner and make my way down the sidewalk, past the other residential homes that make my adjacent neighborhood. The sun is a bright orange against the already darkening sky, highlighting everything in its color from the streetlamps to the trees, mailboxes and even the now-color-changing leaves that gently glided down from their wooden masts after a cool breeze passed them by.

My hands are in my jacket's pockets, keeping the fresh air from bothering them, my eyes reluctantly facing forward instead of towards the ground where I feel they would rather be looking at.

I wonder how much I've actually changed in the span of Kaori and I's relationship, wonder how much of it has been good, how much more of it has been bad.

I never held information from my younger sister to this extent. Never neglected her either. I don't think I've seen her this way other than the time I came back from the hospital from when I got injured saving Yuigahama's dog from getting run over.

My time feeling self-conscious should have all but run out already – used up during middle school, but today I felt it again when I looked at my eyes in the mirror, in my phone. Even now, I'm walking somewhere in the middle of my weekend instead of being at home with my younger sister playing games or reading, something the old me would have done his best to avoid doing.

I've gone back on my word when it comes to the past the moment I began to socialize with Kaori, and now that I think about it, I've gone back on some of my mantras with her: eating a bento from a girl, texting one, phone calls, bike rides and dates.

There's another breeze, a shower of golden-brown, orange, yellow and red leaves cascade from the trees ahead of me to my left. I can feel the ends of my scarf flutter with the breeze.

This is change.

What would the me from the past think if he were to see me now? Would he tell me off or congratulate me? Would he call me a traitor or a winner?

…I'm not sure. A lot has changed since then, too many things to count on both hands.

Back then, I didn't keep secrets of this magnitude from my younger sister, nor did I neglect her. I never made her be this way, sitting alone in the living room during the weekend, leaving her questions pending, leaving her worried.

I lived by my words back then, I kept them tried and true. The past stayed in the past as far as I was concerned, dreams of bentos, dates, bike rides, texting and phone calls were all but bitter thoughts that pulled you in and tore you apart.

At the very least, I used to like to think that I had myself pretty much figured out back then.

This is change.

From something stable and reliable, dull and safe, to where I'm at now; somewhere loose and unpredictable, exciting and dangerous.

This is change.

But,

But if I had to choose between which one I prefer more, between the old and the new, from the stable and reliable to the loose and unpredictable, dull and safe or exciting and dangerous, well…

I can see a familiar porch begin to grow nearer and nearer with every step of mine.

…the way that I am now is full of changes that would make the previous me retch in disgust. The way that I am now is keeping Komachi vulnerable, lonely and worried. The way that I am now doesn't feel like the me that I've been used to.

And yet, the way that I am now makes me–

"Good afternoon."

I had reached Kaori's house and was already set in waiting for her to arrive when those words had cut off my train of thought. I looked to my left and I found it very difficult to stop my eyes from widening at who I saw.

It was as if I had traveled some twenty years into the future and saw Kaori right before me. The similarities between mother and daughter were ridiculous! Her face, smile, eyes and nose were seemingly identical to those of my girlfriend! If it weren't for the tiny differences between their hair color and skin brought upon aging, I wouldn't find it hard to believe if she had said they were twin sisters. Mrs. Orimoto looked like a more mature version of her daughter, and I can't help but point out that she aged very well for someone that's supposed to be in her early forties.

She was waiting for an answer, I realize, but I couldn't for the life in me come up with the words. She seemed to notice my distress and in a very Kaori-type thing to do, Mrs. Orimoto chuckled, her hand covering her mouth as she let out her small laugh.

"You must be Hikigaya-kun, am I correct to assume that?" Her voice was what Kaori's would sound like if given the right amount of time to age. Pleasant and slow, like honey.

"Y-yes, you are correct." I answer her, finally getting my bearings. I slightly bow my head as if to greet her, but this way my eyes aren't as exposed to hers. "I'm Hikigaya Hachiman, Kaori's – uh, Orimoto-san's…" Damn me to hell. I messed up the introduction like a total idiot!

Smooth move, Hachiman!

Mrs. Orimoto smiles at my words, almost as if she was expecting this kind of response from me. Her maturity is starting to show considering she isn't guffawing at how pathetic this first encounter is going.

"No, no, you were doing well." She tells me, a smile on her lips. "You're Kaori's boyfriend, correct?"

I find myself relaxing for some reason, perhaps because Mrs. Orimoto is also like her daughter in terms of personality? I'm not sure.

"Yes, I am." I respond evenly after a short second pause. All the training I've put in with dealing with Kaori is going to pay off right here and now. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Orimoto-"

"You can call me Orimoto, Hikigaya-kun." She cuts me off. "But in return, you better refer to my daughter by her first name when she gets here, okay?" There's a playful tone in her voice. I think it helps me relax.

"Ah, Orimoto-" Mrs. Orimoto raises an eyebrow at me "-um, Kaori-san isn't here yet?" Mrs. Orimoto smiles after I correct my mistake.

"No, not yet, but she shouldn't be long now." She looks at the direction where Kaori usually comes from for a second when a breeze passes through us. She's wearing a light teal sweater that should have taken the brunt of that breeze, but she shudders anyway. "Let's head inside."

I was considering going off to meet up with Kaori halfway to walk her the rest of the way home, but something tells me Mrs. Orimoto wanted to take this opportunity to talk to me in private and me leaving – despite my good intentions – might not make her as happy as I would like.

Of course, that makes me want to leave even more. A private, one-on-one conversation with my girlfriend's mother? That raises red flags!

Mrs. Orimoto opens the door and motions me inside. "Come on in, Hikigaya-kun. I'll prepare us some tea while we wait for Kaori."

I weigh the options mentally and decide to bite the bullet now rather than later. I accept her invitation.

"Forgive the intrusion…" I mutter the custom loud enough for Mrs. Orimoto to hear while I take my shoes off by the door. I've never taken a step inside Kaori's house before, but I somehow knew that the inside décor was going to be of the modern design. The stylish furniture of blacks, whites, beiges and almond colors worked well together to give the kitchen the style of a high-end establishment.

Mrs. Orimoto directs me to the white table directly across the island in the middle of the kitchen while she works on preparing the tea. I somehow knew this wasn't going to be a quiet encounter between Mrs. Orimoto and I, because as soon as I had taken a seat, she immediately began a conversation with me.

"Hikigaya-kun." She calls my name from across the kitchen. "Black or green tea?"

I was about to answer when I thought about the question some more. Knowing Kaori, she prefers her tea green, as she isn't that big a fan of the heavy taste that black tea readily provides. Which is odd, considering she likes her coffee black. I'm just taking a shot in the dark here, but there might be a chance that Mrs. Orimoto might have the same preferences as her daughter, seeing as how they're so alike.

"…Green tea, please." Mrs. Orimoto smiles at my response and begins to prepare the tea. I half expected a response from Mrs. Orimoto around the lines that my taste in tea is good, but I didn't get one as she turned her back on me to prepare it.

The kitchen area is incredibly clean; the floors look as if they were recently polished and the overall ambiance of this home feels nice and clean. This is the work of a veteran housewife, something I shouldn't take lightly if I plan on doing the same as a househusband.

With her back still turned towards me, I hear her voice. "You're a good influence on Kaori, Hikigaya-kun." She says, her tone of voice was warm.

Her words catch my attention. Me? A good influence? How so?

"I'm sorry, Orimoto-san, but I don't follow." I ask her to explain, but I'm not sure if she got that.

"She talks a lot about you, Hikigaya-kun. Did you know that?" No, I wasn't aware of that. I shake my head, fully aware of the fact that she couldn't see the action, but she continues as if she knew I had done that. "Kaori goes on and on about how you always make her laugh," Mrs. Orimoto lets out an amused breath before continuing "how smart you are, the things you say and do…" She trails off as she's finishing preparing the tea.

"…after hearing so many things about this young man who our daughter had so much interest in, well, it was only a matter of time before we wanted to meet him too, you know?" The way she speaks reminds me of Kaori.

I nod as she walks over to the table, tea kettle in one hand and two cups in the other. I can feel my face begin to heat up at the thought of what Kaori has told her parents about the details of our relationship. Not that we have anything to hide, mind you, but if Kaori had been giving her parents details about what kind of person I am this whole time then that could make this harder for than it already is.

They might have an image of me that they created based on what they've been told.

"Of course," She starts again "we were worried when Kaori first started talking about you in such a manner those couple of months ago, as she's never really mentioned any one like that before you." A small grin forms on the edges of her lips as she finishes saying that.

Uh-huh…

…

… _Oh._

It takes me a second to properly register what she had just said, a second longer to realize that I was now sporting a full blown blush on my face, and a second more to realize that Mrs. Orimoto is enjoying my reaction based on the short chuckles she sent my way.

"I-Is that so?" I stammer with a short cough as I fight the blush from growing.

"Uh-huh," She nods, "that makes you happy, doesn't it, Hikigaya-kun?" She asks this as she begins to pour the tea into the cup she set aside for me.

I cough, unsure as how to answer the question. Of course that makes me happy, embarrassed too, but happy nonetheless! I don't think I can answer as confidently as I would like to, however, but with the way Mrs. Orimoto quirks her brow in anticipation I think she's expecting some sort of response from me.

"W-well…" I can't seem to speak my mind under her knowing gaze, her presence as a woman _and_ as my girlfriend's mother is too much to bear with! I can't answer too confidently or it'll look bad on my part, but if I don't answer correctly it'll make me look like some kind of jerk.

"You certainly seem happy, Hikigaya-kun." Mrs. Orimoto smiles knowingly, basically answering for me while simultaneously taking the pressure off of me.

Is this the power of a veteran housewife? Teach me, master!

"…It does make me happy." I agree with her after the fact is known. She nods.

She sits down on the seat adjacent of mine, serves herself tea and takes a slow calculative sip from her cup. Her eyes dart to the wall across from her where there's a collection of framed photographs. I follow her gaze and find the specific photo she's looking at, a recent one of Kaori, smiling brightly at the camera.

"At first, we were worried when Kaori started talking about a boy as often as she did…" She repeats herself, her eyes glued to the photo, her smile unwavering. "…especially since it was the first time something like this had happened, so suddenly, unexpectedly, from out of nowhere. It was strange, you know?"

I do know. Our history was rough and awkward in the beginning, and all of sudden it began to smooth out after a couple of years of not talking or seeing one another. The start of our relationship together was… very sudden and unexpected – from my perspective, at least – but not wrongfully so. We had plenty of time to ourselves before we had that one study session, where we met up plenty of times, we talked plenty before then, we texted plenty before then, had a good number of conversations on our phones before then; so was it so hard to believe that a relationship could start from all that time we spent together?

Back then, maybe. But, now – after the fact – it seems so painfully obvious that all those interactions would lead up to where we're at now.

"It was interesting, seeing the relationship between you evolve from a parent's point of view." She looks at me, her visage amused.

I can't help but ask. "What do you mean, Orimoto-san?"

"Well, it began with texts, didn't it?" She puts on a thoughtful face as she tries to recall the memories. "Kaori was on her phone far more than usual, I remember hearing her laugh from inside her room late at night and when I would ask what she was doing awake at such a late hour she would reply with 'I'm just texting Hikigaya!'" She can imitate Kaori's voice pretty damn well, too. I remember those times; they were just a couple of weeks since _that_ day when we first began to text each other in surplus amounts.

"Then she would be _on_ her phone instead of just using it to text. She would come back from school, we would talk for a while and then she'd suddenly pick up her phone and call 'Hikigaya!' and she'd stay in her room for hours on end." She laughs at the memory.

I can't help but smile at that too. Those times began several weeks since we first started texting one another throughout the day. It was her who asked if she could call me, and after that one call we started doing it every day for a while. Our conversations were mostly trivial, and as much as I used to complain to her about them being as such – and trust me, I complained a lot – I never ignored a call nor would I hang up unannounced, the reason why is still not known to me. She would tell me about her day and I would do the same, begrudgingly. Of course, after the first couple of phone calls, the topics of what we would talk about grew exceptionally until we would both just ramble about anything and everything, my complains growing fewer and fewer with each call – except in the cases when she wanted help with her homework, I _always_ complained then, but always helped her in the end, regardless.

"And then…" She pauses, her eyes locking into mine. "…Well, she asked me how to make a bento."

My eyes widen. "Ah, well…" I nod a small smile on my lips.

"I was so surprised when she asked me because she had almost no interest in being in the kitchen beforehand, but at the same time I felt that it was only a matter of time before something like that was going to happen." She laughs as she shakes her head. "She didn't even let me help her in the kitchen! She was so adamant about wanting to do it on her own, only asking for general advice when it came to cooking, but nothing more than that." Her smile is full before she bows her head towards me. "I apologize for my daughter's poor cooking skills."

I crack up at the apology, but I don't let myself laugh. "Ah, no, no, she's gotten better since then." I reassure her.

"I asked her about your reaction when she came back from school, you know. She waited for you to get out of your club that day, right?" Oh? Even _you_ know about my club, Mrs. Orimoto?

"Yes, she did." I reply, knowing all too well what she was referring to.

"You're a smart guy, Hikigaya-kun; complimenting a girl's cooking is a good way to net you points." She winks at me approvingly. The point system is not restricted to siblings only?!

Ugh…. Even _I_ felt weird about that comment.

I can feel my face begin to grow warm but I let it go. "I did mean what I said, though. It wasn't perfect, but I did like it."

"And she's been making them every school day, if possible, since then." Mrs. Orimoto adds with a grin. "And a little after that, she started coming back home later than usual, and instead of telling me about her day first, she would bring you up, and what you did that made her laugh, what you said and what it meant, just you."

I don't know how to respond to that so I let her continue.

"I think it was around that time where we stopped being as worried about her being with you as we used to." She finishes up her cup of tea seconds after I do. "She's been very happy ever since you two got to talking with one another, you know?"

I'm not sure if I could say the same, considering I was skeptical about Kaori's intentions in the beginning, and while I'm way past that, the question stands:

Am I happy?

Am I happy with how I am now? With a sad, neglected younger sister? With my once-ideals now shattered? With myself being drastically different than the me I was proud of being?

Am _I_ happy?

I have plenty of reasons not to be and they're all bothering me profusely, but can I really lie to myself about something like this?

…

 _No, no I can't._

"So have I." Being with Kaori has brought me problems with my acquaintances, my family and myself, but I can't deny that, despite it all, I'm happy with her. Very much so. The problems that came bundled together are very real, however, and they're something I can't so readily ignore for the sake of my relationship with her. The thought of tackling them and coming out relatively unscathed is nothing but hopeful dreaming at this point.

That worries me.

The thought of what the future is going to bring both worries and excites me. More complications? More moments with her that makes it all worth it? Both?

Is this what change is?

Uncertainty of what's to come?

Paranoia of mistakes to come?

Excitement of things that have yet to come?

Ugh, how scary change is…

Mrs. Orimoto seems to like my answer as she nods enthusiastically with a knowing smile. "You know, Hikigaya-kun, I don't think it'll be too far off to say that Kaori might-"

The front door down the hall opens, and with it, Kaori makes her appearance.

"Okaasan, I'm home!" I can hear her making her way down the hallway, but I'm really not focusing on that right now, rather, my attention is on what Mrs. Orimoto was about to say before she got cut off.

Kaori might what?! Mrs. Orimoto, that isn't fair, you know! Kaori might what?!

"Ara, let's keep that between the two of us, Hikigaya-kun." Mrs. Orimoto whispers and follows up with a wink of her eye.

"Okaasan, Hachiman is going to get here soon, where are…" Kaori begins loudly enough to reach over to the kitchen before she walks in and notices me almost immediately. "…you."

It must have been an unexpected sight for her to witness; her boyfriend was in her house, sitting in the same table as her mother, a thick blush on his face and a teasing smirk on her mother's face directed towards her.

She looks at me as if I had betrayed her. What did I do?!

"H-Hachiman, you're… here." Her left eye twitches as she tries to keep her lips together in a tight smile. "D-didn't you get my text…?"

Huh? She sent a text? When? I reach for my phone in my pocket to check, but Mrs. Orimoto butts in, answering for me.

"Oh, Kaori, cut Hikigaya-kun some slack. I don't think he noticed over our _little_ conversation, right, Hikigaya-kun?" Mrs. Orimoto goes out of her way to give me the most blatant, mischievous wink humanity has ever seen in its entirety right in front of her daughter.

Kaori simply shifts her gaze from her mother over to me and stares, her expression surprisingly neutral.

I'm a dead man.

"H-hey …" I try to defend myself, but it doesn't seem to have an effect on her.

"What did she tell you?" She asks me, her tone painfully neutral.

With Mrs. Orimoto's words still fresh on my mind, the sudden question brings heat to my face. I can hear myself mumble something incoherent in my uncomfortable stupor, my eyes avoiding her all together.

Kaori turns to her mother when she realizes she won't be getting an answer from me. "What did you tell him, Okaasan?!" Her voice finally got some emotion behind it, an angry one, fueled by what appeared to be embarrassment if the furious shade of crimson spreading across her face had anything to say about it.

I'm conflicted on whether to find her current expression cute or scary.

It's a little of both, actually. What a dangerous combination!

Her mother isn't at all bothered by her daughter's outcry; in fact, she seems to be enjoying it. When she stops laughing seconds later, she replies. "Hehe, now, now, Kaori, I didn't tell him anything you haven't told me or your father~."

Kaori gasps before hiding her crimson face behind her hands, giving off a look as if she was letting out a silent scream.

Mrs. Orimoto turns to me and winks. "Isn't she cute when she's like this, Hikigaya-kun?"

" _Okaasan!"_

Despite Kaori's embarrassed whine, I can't help but agree with her mother. I give a short cough as I try to piece my words together. "…Er, um… y-yeah…"

" _H-Hachiman…!"_ Ah, she's giving me that same look from before, the one of puppy-like betrayal. D-don't do that to me, Kaori! _You_ were the one that invited me over, remember?

Mrs. Orimoto sighs happily, as if she were remembering a distant memory. "It's been so long since I've been able to tease you like this, Kaori-chan~." Is that really something to be happy about, Mrs. Orimoto?

"You're _embarrassing_ me in front of _him_ , Okaasan!" Kaori hides her face from me with her hand.

"Ah, I'm not-" Mrs. Orimoto begins, but Kaori doesn't let her finish.

"Okaasan, _please_." Kaori pleads. This type of exchange between mother and daughter catches me off guard for a moment. Is this type of conversation supposed to be normal? I don't know.

Mrs. Orimoto takes a moment to consider it before pouting in a way that a grown woman like her shouldn't be doing, lest she be confused as someone younger than she really is. "Oh, fine. You and your father never let me have any fun in this house." Mrs. Orimoto ends with a huff, her arms crossed across her chest and eyes closed in mock indignation.

The mentioning of Kaori's father catches my attention; the momentarily forgotten stress of being in an unfamiliar setting comes rushing back to me. Focus, Hachiman, focus! I'm deep inside someone else's territory, right now!

"Ah, when is Otōsan coming back, Okaasan?" Kaori asks before giving me a quick glance in such a way as if she was looking out for me. Hoh? Did I really tense up that badly for you to notice, Kaori?

Her mother taps her chin once, and then twice in recalling that tidbit of information. "Normally your father comes back from work later in the evening, but he said he was going to leave the office early," She looks at me before giving me a wink, "just for today."

Ahaha, I'm going to die here tonight.

"Oh, wow," Kaori starts, probably unaware on how nerve-racking that truly is, "he never comes back early." She turns to look at me, her eyes narrow mischievously as a smug smile spreads across her face. You're doing this on purpose?! You are, aren't you?!

Is this revenge?!

"Well, he's been looking forward to today for a while now, you know?" Her mother adds to the pressure already on me with a teasing smile.

Oi, oi, oi, oi! Mrs. Orimoto I thought you were on my side! Don't pick on _me!_ Pick on your daughter! Why is it that whenever there's more than single female in the same room as me they feel inclined to gang up on me?! That's not fair!

My internal cries for a balancing patch will never reach them, I know this.

I had already resigned to my fate when Mrs. Orimoto surprises me by breaking from the norm when she instead turns to Kaori with that same grin from before aimed right at her daughter. "Neh, Kaori-chan, now that you're back can you help me with dinner?"

"Huh?" Kaori and I reply in unison, both obviously confused from the question.

"Since you've been cooking for Hikigaya-kun basically every day, I just thought-"

"Gah! _Okaasan_!" Kaori recoils, walks over to me and grabs my arm before pulling me from my seat. "We're leaving, Hachiman!" It appears that Mrs. Orimoto doesn't like to pick sides.

"A-ah, wait, Kaori…" I try to break her grip on my arm but I fail at doing so. She's dragging me away from the kitchen, deeper into her home.

"Ara, ara…" I hear Mrs. Orimoto laugh from the kitchen behind us.

Kaori, I don't know if you know this, but I don't think I'm supposed to leave your parents' sight when I'm a guest in their home! _Especially_ when it's their daughter that drags me away from one of them! Please have some consideration for your boyfriend's life!

She drags me further down the hallway before making a sudden right turn into what appears to be the living room, sits me down on the couch and takes the place next to me, her eyes closed.

She looks like she's about to reprimand me for something when I remember that she had mentioned a text earlier. I dig my phone out of my pocket, but before I can open it, she interrupts me.

"… _now_ you're checking your phone…? H-Hilarious…." She gives a tired laugh, palming her still-red face with her hands. "Hachiman, you were supposed to wait for me to get home before heading over!" Her sentence bleeds over into a sigh. "This is so _embarrassing_!"

Ah, so that's what this is all about. Kaori didn't want me to get here before she did, afraid of what her mother could do if she had free reign over a conversation with her daughter's boyfriend. Ha, maybe if I hadn't been so focused on my thoughts I would have noticed the text you sent, Kaori.

Despite your embarrassment, Kaori, I'm not regretting my conversation with your mother as much as you are. My embarrassment aside, the conversation showed, if anything, that I have a good chance at pulling off this first meeting with her parents successfully. Her mother seems to like me, at least, but that's only the first hurdle and the second, bigger one has yet to come.

A part of me wants to say sorry for putting her through this embarrassment, but a much bigger part of me can't help but relish this moment when _she's_ the one who's flustered to this extent instead of me. These moments are rare, which is a shame because her flustered face is actually pretty cute, you know?

I weigh the choices mentally and decide on not apologizing for this and instead I decide to switch the subject for her benefit – and mine too.

"How was work?" The question manages to draw her hand away from her face where she gives me this look, one that knows what I'm doing. If she had a problem with it, she didn't mention it as she obliged my question with a response.

"It was alright." Her brown eyes catch mine. "It would have been better if you were there, though." Her face still holds a shade of crimson as she said that, giving that statement an extra kick that causes me to recoil just a bit.

"Yeah, well I had to get ready for this, you know?" True to my word, I've made going to her workplace when she's there a common occurrence. Not every single time, mind you, I know about moderation, but every now and then I'd surprise her with a visit.

She nods her head, understanding my situation. "Thank you, by the way," She starts, "for saying yes to all of this. I'm glad you came."

I raise an eyebrow at this. "It doesn't seem like it." I mean, weren't you just in an embarrassment-induced agony moments ago?

She's calmed down by this point, unfortunately. Her flustered face is all but a sweet memory right now. Please, come back!

She rolls her eyes at my comment. " _Any_ girl would get like that when she's being teased in front of her boyfriend by her mother, Hachiman." Oh, is that a fact, Kaori? "But, no, really, I'm glad you're doing this. They've wanted to meet you for like, forever now."

I could only shrug at that. "It was only a matter of time before I met them, might as well get it out of the way now." Yeah, I _say_ that, but in reality I would have been more than comfortable never having to meet her parents at all. Not that I have anything against them or anything, but this is stressful, you know? "I think I did okay, at least." I added after a second, hinting for confirmation.

Kaori takes the hint and nods her head unenthusiastically. "Yeah, you did great…" She drawls out. "…but you could have saved me all this embarrassment if you – _had – just – waited – for – me, Hachiman!_ " She groans before slumping into the couch instead of sitting by the edge like she was before. I thought we already went past this, Kaori! And am I supposed to take that answer seriously?!

"Yeah, yeah…" I answer her lazily. We need to keep moving forward! "Seriously, how did I do?"

"Hm?" She doesn't bother moving from her spot, but when her eyes meet with mine, they widen in gentle surprise. "Oh, wow, you're serious."

What?! Of course I'm serious! Why wouldn't I be?

She sits up on the couch, a genuine laugh leaving her lips as she does so. "You did great, Hachiman. Okaasan hasn't had this much fun teasing me in a long time, just by that alone I'm sure she likes you." Kaori is eyeing me the entire time she was talking to me, one of her hands grabs onto the material of my scarf as if testing its durability.

"And besides…" She starts, her tone fairly intimidating in this type of environment. Wait a second, I know this tone! Oi, this isn't-

"…dressing up earned you some points…" She pulls on my scarf, thereby pulling me along with it until my face is only a couple of inches away from hers. The smile that her lips form is anything but innocent. "…you know?" She tugs on my scarf one last time in an effort of pulling the both of us closer together.

 _WhatareyoudoingKaoridoyouwantmetodieorsomething?!_

When her lips kiss my left cheek, I knew I had dodged a potential bullet when I turned at the last second.

"Huh?"

"Oh?"

I can feel my heart pound deep within me, letting me know that I'm still alive and well.

For now.

"H-Hachiman…?" She says my name, confused as to why I turned away from her. T-this isn't the time and place to be k-kissing- showing signs of affection, Kaori! I'm in dangerous territory right now! Imagine what would happen if either of your parents would have seen-

Wait a moment.

There had been _two_ sounds of confusion, and one of them had belonged to Kaori… and I had stayed quiet…

Resisting the urge to beg for my life, I turned to the doorway into the hallway where Kaori had dragged me in through earlier, and was not surprised at all to find Mrs. Orimoto halfway through the entrance, her lower body hidden behind the wall.

I begin to idly wonder if a kiss on the cheek constitutes a death sentence, and if so, I instantly regret not going for the full kiss instead.

Kaori had followed my gaze and had begun to babble incoherently a thousand words per second in a futile attempt to disarm the situation, and while my attention was on the older woman halfway through the room, I can safely assume my girlfriend is as flustered as I am – probably even more so – without the need to look at her.

Mrs. Orimoto, for our benefit(?), acts coy, or at least, _tries_ to act coy as the smug grin currently on her face breaks through the act immediately, and looks away towards the hallway behind her. "D-don't mind me…" She forced that stammer, didn't she? "…please continue." She added a moment later, but doesn't move an inch from her spot.

" _O-O-Okaasaan_!" My girlfriend wails as she gets up from the couch and chases after her laughing mother, who ran deeper into the house when she saw her daughter begin to rise from her seat.

I'm left alone in my girlfriend's living room, completely flustered, the sounds of embarrassed screaming and joyous laughter travelling through the walls from deeper within the house.

A familiar thought makes its way to my head:

 _Just what did I get myself into?_

...

Half an hour later, I was still in the living room, but unlike before, Kaori and her mother had taken to sitting on the couch, flanking me from both sides. Some sort of truce has been made between them, and since then Mrs. Orimoto has behaved herself. To pass the time, Kaori had turned on the television, and now the sounds of some television drama filled the living room.

All that I've picked up from what was going on in the show is something about teenage pregnancy; so naturally, I'm not that interested in it. Surprisingly enough, however, Mrs. Orimoto and Kaori are completely invested into the overdramatic story being acted out on the screen across the couch. Either the actors are doing a fantastic job in playing their roles or I'm missing out on something.

Before I can wonder why, my attention is taken when I hear the front door open down the hall.

"I'm home." A masculine voice rang out from the front door down the hall, it wasn't too deep, but not entirely smooth either. Despite the neutral tone in which the words were spoken in, I can feel a knot tighten up at the base of my gut.

The second, more dangerous hurdle I had to cross has finally made his presence known.

Mrs. Orimoto places a hand on my lap, silently telling me to hold on for a moment before getting up from the couch to go meet her husband, probably to alert him that I am in his home.

I feel a shiver roll down my spine when the television is switched off, when the practiced lines of the TV drama that had effectively filled the living room suddenly went silent, when the voice of the third and final member of the Orimoto household made his presence known is when I suddenly remembered that I wasn't in familiar territory like I'm used to in my own home.

I'm a stranger in this house.

Ugh, that thought is unsettling.

I can't understand the faint mutterings between husband and wife down the hallway, leaving me unsure as to what to do in this situation. I turn to face Kaori, assuming that she too must be going through the same dread that I am, but instead of a concerned look I'm met with a nonchalant expression plastered onto her face, as if what was about to happen was nothing to be worried about.

Can't you at least show some sympathy in my time of need, sweet girlfriend of mine?

I give her a look to try and spark a reaction from her, it doesn't matter what kind, because at this point, _anything_ would be better than nothing! It takes several excruciating seconds for her to maybe notice, but even then I'm not sure.

Maybe she notices my nervous expression and is trying to get me to relax or maybe she remembered something funny, because either way, a smile graces her lips as her hand grasps one of mine.

"You're worried about this?" Her caring tone is trying to mask the amused disbelief beneath her words. You're as sharp as ever, detective Orimoto.

I roll my eyes. "What do you think?"

My sarcastic remark elicits a short laugh from her. "Didn't expect that kind of thing from you, you know? It's funny."

How is that funny? And what do you mean you didn't expect this kind of thing from me, Kaori? I'm still human, you know? Any guy would be nervous meeting their girlfriend's father, isn't that obvious?

I grunt, shrugging the comment off. "I don't know why you think that's funny; I'm about to meet your father, of course I'm going to be worried."

"So even you can feel this way, huh…?" I could barely hear what she mutters under her breath, but she immediately perks up right after faster than I can question what she said. "Everything is going to be fine, Hachiman, you shouldn't worry too much about it." She pauses for a second, her smile never wavering. "Trust me."

I nod my head once, fighting the urge to think of her words as empty advice – because while the words themselves may sound fake, the tone in which she said them is far from that. I'm taking her word for it, despite what I would have normally done back then after hearing such words from someone.

I trust her.

I hear approaching footsteps from down the hall and with that I take a breath and get up on my feet from the couch, Kaori mirroring my actions beside me. Mrs. Orimoto walks in first and gives me a smile before she turns around, her shoulder to me, showcasing the man behind her.

Corporate slave.

That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw him, Kaori's father. He fitted the description of a corporate slave to a T, even down to the suitcase in his hand. The only thing that sets him apart is his age, or at least, how young he is to be looking like a slave. Most corporate slaves are wrinkled to an extreme, their age mixed with constant stress and long shifts credit to that, but he doesn't seem to show that on his skin except for the area around his eyes.

Despite it all, this man gives off an aura of someone older than he really is.

When I finish my initial assessment of him, our eyes meet and I could feel he had just finished doing the same to me.

Our eye contact remains for several seconds as I'm too indecisive and nervous to speak up or break the gaze.

Suddenly, he clears his throat and moves his free hand to loosen the dark brown tie of his apparel around his neck.

"…What the hell is wrong with your eyes?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

I could almost hear all of my confidence shatter instantaneously at that comment.

Mrs. Orimoto breaks out into a hardy laugh, but has the decency to hide her mouth with her hand as she does so. Salting the wound, ma'am.

"Otōsan!" At some point Kaori had gotten between me and her father, blocking me with her body before scolding him. I didn't even notice when she had moved as I was busy making sure I didn't sustain any burn injuries from her father's straightforward comment. I think I can hear her scolding her father, but I can't for the life in me pinpoint what exactly she's saying to him as my mind is currently somewhere else, probably trying to calculate how my chances stack up with this new development.

This must have gone on for about a minute or two, Kaori verbally chastising her father, Mrs. Orimoto laughing continuously behind her husband and Mr. Orimoto sheepishly rubbing the back of his head during the verbal assault he was going through, before my mind finally came back to me, now able to pick up the last tidbits of what was going on before me.

"…said you were going to be nice, Otōsan!" Kaori finished a statement, but looked ready to start another.

"Erm… No, I… Uh…" He tried to keep up with his daughter, but didn't look like he stood much of a chance, his face already showing signs of defeat. Mr. Orimoto looked very… not pathetic, no, but, uh… he seemed fairly familiar…? Have I seen this kind of scene before…? Who does he remind me of…?

Ah.

Me.

This kind of scenario seems familiar because I've been in some similar to his position: flustered and unable to keep up when in front of a strong female. But even in those cases I would somehow manage to somewhat keep my words flowing, unlike her father in front of her.

I felt sympathy for the man being scolded by his daughter in such a manner, and knowing Kaori, this kind of event must happen fairly often. You raised her a little too well, Mr. Orimoto, congratulations.

He looks at me past Kaori's shoulder and must have noticed the understanding look I was giving him because a second later he clears his throat and interrupts his daughter mid-scold.

"…Okay, okay. I'm sorry, Kaori-chan." He concedes to his daughter's wishes. Smart move, Mr. Orimoto, I would have done the same thing.

Kaori doesn't seem impressed as she crosses her arms across her chest, head tilted indignantly from him. "Don't apologize to me, Otōsan. Apologize to Hachiman."

His eyes meet mine once more.

Oh look, death approaches.

Mrs. Orimoto snorts back a laugh from the other side of the living room, apparently loving everything about this.

His eyes send a message, one that tells me that so many awful, painful things are headed my way soon if he has to apologize to me. Agh, this is terrifying!

"N-no, it's fine, Kaori…" Mr. Orimoto raises an eyebrow. "…erm, I mean, Orimoto-san…" Mrs. Orimoto does the same from across the room. "…uh…" What do I say?! "…I don't mind at all."

Kaori doesn't believe me. "But, Hachiman…"

"The kid said he doesn't mind, Kaori-chan, let's leave it at that, alright?" Mr. Orimoto butts in, probably preferring to keep the conversation going forward from here on out. I agree with him if that was his intention. He passes his suitcase over to his wife, freeing up his hands.

T-that's scary, Mr. Orimoto. I'm pretty sure you don't need both hands for whatever it is you plan on doing!

"Otōsan…" Kaori is about to begin, but her father expertly avoids any oncoming remarks by focusing on me instead.

"Hey kid; can I get a word with you?" He tilts his head towards to the left once towards the hallway. "Outside?"

What.

"What?" Kaori mimics my thought. "Why outside? Otōsan…"

"Oh, Kaori just let him do this. He's been waiting for this for a long time now." Mrs. Orimoto steps in and grabs Kaori's hands before sitting her down on the couch behind her.

"Okaasan…!" Kaori complains but doesn't go any further than that.

Mr. Orimoto turns his attention to me once more and turns around before speaking up. "This way."

I take a deep breath before following soon after, sparing a glance to my girlfriend before entering the hallway behind her father.

" _Behave!"_ I can hear Mrs. Orimoto call out from behind us. The fact that she has the need to say that makes me even more uncomfortable towards the man I'm following.

"Yeah, yeah…" He mutters out to no one in particular, low enough so his wife can't hear him but loud enough for me to catch it.

…

He opens the door and looks at me, wordlessly telling me to go before him.

I do as he wants, but I wouldn't doubt it if he slams the door behind me. I'm on the porch that I'm used to seeing from the sidewalk whenever I walk or drop off Kaori home. I hear the door close behind me, but I don't turn around to see if Mr. Orimoto was there or not, instead, I look ahead at the spot where Kaori and I usually stand when I take her home.

From my right peripherals I see him walk up to the fence-like railing that makes up the porch itself before leaning on it, his eyes staring forward as well, maybe even to the same spot I'm looking at.

The sun had set by this point, night now in effect. The porch light, being the automatic kind, must have switched on once the sun had set, once the final rays of sunlight stopped hitting the sensors it came with. The light from this perspective of the porch only seems to put emphasis on the night, rather than the usual environment that I'm used to being in when I see it.

The two of us remain quiet out here on the porch for what feels like an eternity to me, but only a couple seconds for someone like him, probably.

His forearms shift against the railing he's leaning on. "Call me 'sir', alright?"

Those weren't the words I expected him to say after what he said in the house, but I can accept them with ease. We're moving forward from that, I can respect that.

I nod my head, but neither of us turns to one another, we just look forward.

"I don't like you." He says, tone disinterested in his own words.

I can feel my stomach drop at his words.

He doesn't say anything else until I nodded my head in disappointed understanding a couple of seconds later. "Don't take it too hard, though, kid. I don't like any teenage boy who's around my daughter." His voice is heavier here on the porch than it was inside. If it was an attempt to intimidate me any further, well, it's working.

"Thing is? You're the first I've had to dislike." His hands come together, fingers interlocked with one another. He takes a breath. "But this isn't about whether or not _I_ like you, now is it?" He asks, breathing out a short breath as he finishes his question.

I shake my head before confirming with myself that I was able to answer steadily seconds later. "…no."

"No." He repeats after me.

A breeze passes us, fresh and cool. It's going to get cold soon, I suppose.

"You know, as a father," he pauses, as if reminding me who he was, "…I never wanted to think about what it was going to be like when my only child, my only daughter, began to date – or at least, start showing an interest in a boy." He stays still. "Now that it's actually happening, I regret not thinking things through back when I had a chance to." He tells me this as if they were the first time he's thought of those words and for all I knew, they just might be.

There's a silence between us, and I wonder if I had to respond to that, and if I did, then how? Luckily for me, he goes on a moment later.

"I honestly have no idea what to tell you, kid." He says, voice serious but amused at the same time. "Not only because I don't know what to say, but because I don't know what to think about you."

"…?" I tried to ask why, but wasn't able to let it out. I think he got what I wanted to ask simply from my attempt.

"As a father, I don't like you." He tells me bluntly. "But from what my daughter has been telling my wife and me for the past couple of months, I can only draw blanks from there on." He adds a second later.

Mr. Orimoto sighs. "She talks about you a lot." He goes on from his previous statement. "More so than I would like, to be completely honest with you." You've been astonishingly honest this entire time, Mr. Orimoto; please don't start with that now. "That alone made me dislike you even more every time she would bring you up," he starts again, "but I think that's normal for a father."

I can't help but agree with him. I may not be a father, but I understand where Mr. Orimoto is coming from. Every time Komachi mentions that cockroach Taishi I can't help but want to _hunt him down_ for being in my younger sister's head.

"She had us worried for a while when she began to mention you more and more often." Didn't Mrs. Orimoto say this exact thing earlier today? "But I would have had to have been blind and deaf to not notice how happy she's been since she began to talk about you." From my peripherals I can see him grimace faintly.

"Of course, that only made me not trust you even more, in the beginning, at least." He pauses. "There are a lot of punks out there who will make a girl believe anything just to get in with them." We share a frown together at the thought. "I had wanted to intervene about a month in, but my wife convinced me otherwise, to just let the chips fall where they may." The way he said that was incredibly directed towards me, and as odd as that may sound, considering he and I were the only ones on the porch, it shook me.

Mr. Orimoto just said he could have intervened a _month in_ , but didn't.

That… That… was a scary thought. A month in, Kaori and I had just begun to talk to one another on the phone…

He was implying that he could've cut our relationship right then and there, when we had just barely started talking on the phone all those months ago.

The thought of what could have been lost if that had happened managed to send shivers down my spine.

Once he managed to get the reaction he had wanted out of me, or something, he continued. "So we did just that, and we waited for you to mess up. For her to come home crying, for her to come home angry, or anxious, hurt or otherwise. But…" He sighs. "…she never did. She would come home from school happy and in the weekends she was as happy as ever too. If there was any time she was unhappy, it wouldn't last long enough for us to capitalize on to intervene between what was going on with you and her." He takes a breath. "Any parent would be content to see their daughter being happy for so long, and that doesn't exclude me. As much as I don't like to hear your name being brought up so much, kid, I have to admit I like how happy she is whenever she talks about you."

For the first time since we've been out here, Mr. Orimoto turns to look at me and I do the same in return. His expression didn't change much, but I don't think I expected it to, honestly.

"I guess it also helps to know that you have been a good influence on her too." He admits, tone slightly more positive than before.

Mrs. Orimoto never explained how I've been a good influence on her daughter, and this is something I actually would like to know.

I clear my throat. "…How so?" My words come out intact somehow.

By the way his face slightly contorts, he's considering whether or not to tell me, but ultimately obliges me.

"Not sure if you know this, kid, but Kaori…" He pauses to think of the correct words to say. "…was just about average when it came to her grades in school when she first began to mention you often." Just a bit _below_ average, Mr. Orimoto. She's your daughter, I know, but there shouldn't be a reason for you to stretch the truth. "We were afraid her grades were going to take a dive if she had a boy running around her mind when she should be focusing at school." He turns back to the spot he was looking at earlier, but I didn't.

"In fact, we were waiting to see her grades begin to fall in order for me to intervene, but," he shakes his head, "that never happened. You can probably imagine how surprised I was to find that her grades were _improving_ since she had begun to talk about you." His breathing is rhythmic and steady. "I wanted to believe that it was just a coincidence, that she began to take her studies seriously, but no, that's not what she said: she credits you for her improved grades – initially just on homework, but also on quizzes and exams later on."

I nod my head once in understanding. On the phone, I would occasionally help Kaori with whatever homework she had, but only when she would ask me for help. In the beginning, she would always seek my help, but as time went on she would stop doing that so frequently. I never asked why, now that I think about it.

When was the last time I helped her with her homework, anyway?

"She also started studying on her own, too." Mr. Orimoto adds a moment later. "That's what my wife tells me, at least. Apparently, when she's not on the phone with you, she's either doing her homework or studying in her room. My wife likes to think it's because of you that she began doing that – I guess to impress you or something, I wouldn't know, but then again she might have just said that to tease her."

I'm trying to wrap my mind around it, but I'm having trouble believing it _and_ doubting it. It's true that it has been a while since I last helped her with her homework, but didn't I help her study for that English exam she had about a month ago?

 _The study session._

If she's been studying on her own, then what had been the point of her coming to me for help that fateful Sunday? I could have sworn she had difficulty answering the review questions too…

It couldn't have been staged…could it…?

"Well, that was before she started working at that café, at least." Mr. Orimoto unknowingly interrupts my inner monologue, but takes a pause right after.

He seems to be mulling his words over in his head.

"She's changed." His words are simple, but the impact they have is anything but that. "I think it goes without saying, but she's changed for the better right after meeting you." His voice sounds distant, as if he just thought of something that hadn't come to mind before, but even so he continued. "Her attitude, her grades, her demeanor, she smiles and laughs a lot more now, everything."

I can tell that these words he's been telling me have been brewing in his head as nothing but pure observations for quite some time now, and they're just now being used after so long. Kaori hadn't been exaggerating when she said her parents had wanted to meet me.

What strikes me odd are the last couple of words he brings up, though. He's implying that she didn't used to smile or laugh as often as she does now. Kaori, for as long as I have known her this intimately, has only mentioned a couple of things that can upset her, _truly_ upset her; losing friends was one of those few things that truly bothered her.

Of course she's told them about it, I know that. If there was one thing to learn about this entire evening, it had to be that Kaori shares everything with her family. Everything.

Thinking back to how it is at my own home, I can't help but think that it must be nice. To share things with family.

Must be nice.

…Her parents are aware of their daughter's issues when it comes to keeping friends, that much is obvious, and there's a good chance they've talked to her about it, to cheer her up or something, to assure her that everything will be alright in the long run. They must have also noticed that while the advice was given with good intentions, it didn't really help her or keep her feeling happy for too long.

Who knows how long she's been dealing with that kind of problem anyway?

Compared to how much effort they must have put in to help her, I didn't really do much, honestly. There's a good chance I might have gone and repeated their exact words that one bicycle ride a few weeks ago, even.

Yet, somehow I managed to make a difference. I don't understand, and I have a feeling neither does Mr. Orimoto.

Who knows?

"But change," He begins, "is seldom a one-way street, kid." My hands tense up inside my jacket's pockets. "I think that's what worries me more than anything else, by this point. There's give-and-take in a relationship, I shouldn't have to tell you that, but that's something I need to know. As a father." He looks at me once more, eyes still as serious as they were the moment we met. "I can see that Kaori has changed because of you, for the better, thankfully, but I have to wonder and I have to ask: what about you, kid? What have you gotten out of this thing you have with my daughter? Have you changed?" The questions hang in the cool night air for a moment too long with no answers.

It's my turn to look away from him, unable to reply. His words are testing the strength of our relationship, I know, but he's hardly concerned about whether or not I've gained anything from this thing I have going on with Kaori.

He wants to know if _I_ know that I got something out of it. It's hard to put it into words.

He's right when he said that a relationship is give-and-take, and in his eyes, it looks like Kaori has been the only one benefiting by this whole thing. Her grades have been going up, she's smiling more, laughing more, she's happy – he can see all of that, but he has no way of knowing if I've changed at all, and it's not like Kaori can tell him so because she doesn't know either.

Hell, before this I wasn't even aware that Kaori had changed so much because of me because I've been with her every step of the way she seemed normal, like she usually was. This is all a surprise to me.

But I _have_ changed, but in this case, not in the way she has. Not positively, no.

I could argue that I'm happier with her than I was before we got together, but that's not how this works and that's not what he wants to hear. In order to be truly happy, you have to get something in return, something that benefits you, something you want – not need. It's selfish, it's greedy, but it's human.

Her grades improved, she smiles more, laughs more, and she's become happy; that's what she's gained from our relationship.

My little sister is being neglected, I've gone back on the words I used to believe so much in, my club is constantly on the threshold of falling apart, I'm a ghost of my former self; that's what I've gained from this whole thing.

I _have_ changed.

"…I have." I tell him moments later. My eyes rest on the spot I'm so used to by this point.

I'm not paying attention to what he's doing anymore, but I can see him shift subtly from the corner of my eye. "Doesn't sound like you've changed how Kaori has." His voice is neutral, surprisingly. I thought he would have enjoyed seeing this kind of thing coming from me, considering he's been against me since the beginning.

"…No, not like that." I reply automatically.

"Changed for the worse?" He offers.

Several seconds pass of numbing silence before I nod my head.

He doesn't say anything for a while.

Neither do I.

This isn't how I expected for this conversation to go when I followed him down the hall earlier this evening. Then again, I didn't know what to expect before coming over to her house this afternoon.

I surely didn't expect to feel this numb from the inside from this conversation. I blink.

I've lost more than I've won in this relationship, I acknowledge that now. I sigh.

I'm an idiot, really.

I'm an idiot, because despite it all…

…heh, despite it all…

"Are you happy, kid?" He must have noticed my sigh, or whatever pathetic expression I had on my face, because he suddenly popped that question out of nowhere. From the corner of my eye I can see that he's not looking at me.

I wasn't aware you were a mind reader, Mr. Orimoto.

"…Yes, I am, sir." Only an idiot would be happy when he loses more than he wins. I expect him to question my response, and I'm worried for when he does because I have no answer for that. He could use this moment to deem me unworthy of his daughter and cut the ties between us.

I really don't want that. Anything but that.

While it may be true that there have been more negative repercussions than positive outcomes from my relationship with Kaori, the thought of being separated from her is bone chilling.

That would mean going back to my old lifestyle, wouldn't it?

No texts.

No phone calls.

No more bentos.

No more dates.

…

It shouldn't be this intimidating, damn it. Hasn't that been my entire life before _that_ day?

But still…

To be alone again… just the thought of that makes me feel sick with fright.

Ugh, when did I become such a weakling, anyway?

It would fix everything, if it were to end.

I wouldn't have to hold anything back from my little sister.

She wouldn't be neglected.

I could go back to being me.

It's only logical to think this way, isn't it?

It's only logical.

And yet, I'm wavering.

Problem is, I don't see myself being as happy as I am now if it were to end.

If it were to end, I'd lose her. Not just as my girlfriend, no, but as someone I trust. I'd lose my one and only friend, because that's what she is too, that's what she's been before she even became my girlfriend. It took months of constant exposure to one another, sure, but she had done it and wormed her way in to something not even my clubmates were in.

I don't want to lose that.

There are a lot of things I don't want to lose.

Despite knowing all of this, I can't form a single word to help defend my answer.

It's been a regular occurrence since Kaori and I got together, but I once again find myself completely speechless. The Orimoto family knows how to counter me a little too well, it seems.

He clears his throat and I brace myself. "…All right then." He states, but says nothing more. Seconds pass in silence before I realize that was it.

That… That wasn't the answer I was expecting.

I turn to face him as he turns to face the spot I had been looking at. "…Sir?" I don't understand.

He looks very far away, he's within three feet of me but he might as well be on the other side of Japan he's looking so far.

"Some life advice: stick to what keeps you happy, kid." Mr. Orimoto begins to lecture me, his tone of voice far more relaxed than before. "Change is never always good; it comes with problems, for you and for everyone that is close to you. But change is never always bad either, you know this. If you didn't, you wouldn't be happy dating my daughter, would you?"

He takes a breath. "Listen to me kid. Don't let the problems you have get in the way of what keeps you happy. You're not going to win like that." He sighs. "I'm not sure what's going on in your side of all of this, what problems came with being with my daughter, and I honestly don't care much for them, but you told me what I needed to hear so I'll tell you something that you might need to hear: Problems can be dealt with, but lost happiness is hard to bring back. One problem or a million, losing what makes you happy is never the correct way to deal with them, even if it is the cause of all your problems."

He turns his head towards me and our eyes meet. He's talking from experience, I realize.

"Whatever you're going through right now, is not that big a deal, kid. Deal with your problems the best you can, but don't sacrifice what makes you happy in order to do so." He repeats himself one more time. "It takes two to have a relationship, after all."

I'm trying to process his words as best I can, but in the meantime I have to ask him something. "W-why are you telling me all of this?"

He arcs an eyebrow. "It's not because I like you, kid. Trust me on that." He gives an amused sigh. "You just happen to remind me of myself when I was your age, is all." He nods to nobody in particular, agreeing with himself more than anything else. "And maybe because you're what keeps my little girl happy, and she happens to take after me more than just genetics, you know." His brown eyes close for a second and I'm momentarily alone.

When he opens his eyes again, he appears to be calm, physically relaxed now.

"She's going to hang on to you, kid. No matter what." He sighs with a shake of his head, but there's an amused grin on his lips, small as can be. "So do her and yourself a favor and try not to make it too hard for her to do that, alright?"

I cough, trying to hide the small blush that had appeared on my face when he had said that.

 _No matter what, huh?_

I can feel myself relax after hearing that, _all_ of that, but I now know there shouldn't have been a reason to be worried at all because Mr. Orimoto had explained it in the beginning of this conversation - _"But this isn't about whether or not_ I _like you, now is it?"_

It was an anticlimactic solution to what was on my mind earlier, but I don't mind. The fear of having to losing her was going away now that the probability of that happening was dramatically reduced.

With my unease beginning to melt away, I find myself looking at the night sky above the spot that Kaori and I are used to being at during this hour, Mr. Orimoto doing the same next to me.

This visit of mine, it wasn't about winning them over, apparently. It wasn't about appealing to her parents. This visit of mine was made, simply because her parents had wanted to meet me, their only daughter's boyfriend, for no other reason other than to speak with me – so _I_ could finally meet _them_. Kaori had them convinced for a while now on just the type of person I am.

After all, Kaori has told them all about me to a degree I'm not aware of, but if I had to guess, they might as well have known me for as long as she has.

"We could go back in, but I'd rather not." Mr. Orimoto says aloud to nobody in particular. "I'm done talking to you, but if you're willing to listen to me for a while longer, then stay."

I don't think I should leave, now that you put it that way, Mr. Orimoto. "It _is_ nice outside." I answer him and my feet stay planted on the ground.

He nods. "Good, this won't take long anyways."

He takes a breath and lets it go. And does it again shortly after.

"I used to be your age at some point, believe it or not." He starts, catching me off guard at the strange starting point. Is this a history lesson? "And that wasn't so long ago either, I don't know if you've noticed, kid."

No, no, it looks believable, Mr. Orimoto. You've still got a full head of hair and you're not completely covered in wrinkles either, so I don't think I can call you old, per se. I'm not really sure at what you're getting at, though.

It's uncharacteristically quiet once again. I thought the tense moment had finished already?

"I'm thirty-four years old." I see him smile for the first time here.

I can feel my jaw begin to loosen up, but I catch it before it drops. Thirty… thirty-four…? That's… no, no… what?

But… Kaori is seventeen! That would mean…!

"My wife is thirty-three." His eyes close as he turns his face away from me and then turns towards the street ahead.

How old is Hiratsuka-sensei again?!

…so… when they were sixteen or seventeen… Kaori had been…

They were around my age… So young and they had… I can't wrap my head around it.

"I was your age once, believe it or not." He says from my right. "And it wasn't so long ago either, kid. So believe me when I say I know what goes on with the youth..." Oh no.

Oh no, no, no.

 _No._

I feel the sudden, unexplainable urge to plead my – I mean OUR, our innocence before he goes on any further. "I-I uh, w-we haven't…"

If he found my reaction funny, he didn't show any sign of it other than an amused breath escaping his nose. "Relax kid, I know." How do you know?! How can you possibly know?! Is that a power only a father can possess?! "This is just me talking here."

I nod my head once, but can't shake the feeling of being accused of something. I'm innocent, you know?!

"We were young." His words sounded tired. "Slightly younger than you two are now, so congratulations." He doesn't look amused, but his words definitely were. "We were reckless. We rushed things along faster than they should have been going." He shakes his head. "I don't think I have to explain to you what happened between two hormonal teenagers, do I?"

 _Kaori happened._

No, no you don't. You _shouldn't_ either.

"N-no."

"Good, that shows you know more than we did back then." Was that praise? "We have no right to be the ones to tell you about this kind of thing, the, uh, the dangers of youth and all that…" He had snapped his fingers twice when he stammered during his sentence as he tried to gather the correct words. "…so we won't. I just hope you two are more careful than we were."

W-w-what are you saying, Mr. Orimoto?! You're making it sound like Kaori and I have….have… had… no! S-should a father be saying this kind of thing?!

"You're young, the both of you, we understand that. We understand that better than others, honestly, we do." He lets a tired laugh escape his lips. "What I'm trying to get at is: I don't like you kid, but my daughter does, and as hard as it is for me to say this, you're probably one of the better ones she could have ended up with anyway. You're of that age, the both of you are, so whatever happens, whenever it happens, just be careful."

These embarrassing words being spoken to me are accepted without any trouble or delay, because beyond their severe significance, they have a deeper meaning to me: He deems me worthy of his daughter.

And that matters to me more than I'd like to admit.

He says something that I don't catch before he turns around and heads for the door.

I stay on the porch for a couple of seconds longer, inspecting the starry night sky before following him.

The door closes behind me, and I can't help but think that...

…the stars sure are bright tonight.

…

Upon reentering the house, Mr. Orimoto had been dragged into the kitchen by his wife, while I was dragged into the living room by their daughter. The smell of food had filled the house since Mr. Orimoto and I had left to have that conversation, a product of Mrs. Orimoto, no doubt.

I had a feeling we were going to be asked very similar questions, Mr. Orimoto and I.

"You and Otōsan were out there for a while." Kaori says as she sits us down on the same couch as before. "What did you two talk about?" Her hands caress mine after she forced them from my pockets. They're soft.

What _did_ we talk about? I wonder.

"Plenty of things." I answer vaguely. I'm still mulling the significance of his words in my head, but the main gist of it all was that everything turned out fine.

Just as you said it would, Kaori.

"Eh?" Kaori tilts her head to the left in confusion, her bangs following shortly afterwards with a bounce. "Can't you be a little bit more specific, Hachiman?" She's pouting now and I can't help but think that's a little overkill.

I shrug in defeat. "Well, he doesn't like me. He made sure I got that." I reply, a smile beginning to form after one look at her incredulous face she gave me a moment after.

"What?" She looks ready to get up and stir hell. "Was he being mean to you, Hachiman? Otōsan…!" I tug on her hands, forcing her to sit back down on the couch before she causes her father any more grief. Your words are stronger than you think, Kaori!

"He said I was doing a good job at keeping you happy, and that was enough for him, apparently." There's no way I'm going to repeat the entire conversation I had with him, not now, not when it's still so fresh on my mind, but I think I got the main point across to her.

She lets out a huff and she visibly calms down. Her warm brown eyes soften as they lock onto mine.

"Hmm…" She smiles. "…well he's not wrong about that." She loops an arm around mine before bringing her body closer to mine, her head resting on my shoulder. "You're pretty good at it."

A part of me wants to tell her to back off since both her parents happen to be right around the corner down the hall, but I don't. This closeness with her was sorely missed all throughout the day today, not that I would openly admit that, mind you, so I'm willing to let this continue for a few moments more.

"I told you everything was going to turn out fine." I hear her voice coming from my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah, you did say that, didn't you?" I let her have her moment.

"And you were worried for nothing… Hilarious!" She laughs before tightening her grip on my arm. You can't fool me, Kaori. Try as you might, I know that you were a tiny bit nervous for my sake too.

"No, it was definitely something to be worried about, I think…" I sigh, a smile on my lips.

The resulting nod against my shoulder tells me that I answered correctly. After all, a guy meeting his girlfriend's parents is a big deal, even if they had already deemed him worthy before they even met.

Moments later, we are called towards the kitchen, where Mrs. Orimoto had just finished preparing dinner. Kaori insisted we go hand-in-hand to the kitchen, and after everything that's happened today, I have no intent to argue.

On the dinner table, it's Kaori and her mother who dominate the flow of conversation between themselves and us men every now and then while they talk about their day at work/home. Dinner was loud with overlapping conversations, laughter, and stories about the day they had all endured.

It was…nice. Nice and nostalgic, this dinner I was part of.

My thoughts on home and the last time my family had a dinner like this one briefly entered my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. I wasn't really participating in the conversations going on at the table, but it felt nice to be there to hear them; a depressing memory of times almost forgotten didn't really fit in with this environment, after all.

I liked to think that I had myself pretty much figured out to the point where I could speak of my preferences, habits, likes and dislikes rather confidently, as if they were undeniable truths. I liked to think that, but now, now I'm not sure if I could think like that anymore.

A lot has changed since then, but not a lot of time has passed.

I've changed faster than I could keep up with. With this change, problems that I've never dealt with before have come up, all of them negative.

Change is scary and seldom good.

Despite it all, though, I'm happy. Despite all the change, I can't deny that I'm happy. Despite all the problems, I'd rather be selfish right now and say that I'm happy, because I truly am.

But, I know that these problems are very real, they pose a threat, and their origin more-or-less comes from my relationship with Kaori. I can't ignore these problems.

"I can teach you how to cook this, Kaori~, you know?" Mrs. Orimoto says from across the table. "I'm sure Hikigaya-kun would be grateful if I do~!"

" _O-Okaasan!"_

So I won't ignore them.

I won't ignore these problems.

Even if my happiness is the source of them all.

I'll take Mr. Orimoto's advice to heart; Problems can be dealt with, but lost happiness is hard to bring back.

I'll deal with these problems.

I'll be selfish and hold onto what makes me happy.

I'll do that, I'll continue going against my past self, and stay happy.

I look around at the warm environment I'm in, the conversations, the smiles, the laughs, things I'm fairly new to and I know.

This is change.

From something stable and reliable, dull and safe, to where I'm at now; somewhere loose and unpredictable, exciting and dangerous.

This is change.

That day, it began with a question.

I push my thoughts aside and instead I start paying attention to the setting I'm in, foregoing what the past me would have thought of this moment and I join the flowing conversations going on.

This is what change is, after all.

But today, it began with a first impression.

…

I was washing the dishes in the same silence that has surrounded for the past couple of hours.

It's late.

…

When I finish, I head for my room, turning off the lights to the kitchen behind me.

I'm walking up the stairs when a very familiar thought comes to mind.

"Where are you, Onii-chan…?"

~End~

 **Man, was that really a month-long wait?**

 **I'm so sorry guys, but I've been extremely busy with work, family schoolwork, Fallout 4, holidays and all that good jazz. ; u ;**

 **Anyways, this chapter… oh man, I didn't expect for it to get so long, but I couldn't stop typing because I felt that I couldn't skim any of the conversations if I wanted to keep that SNAFU feeling.**

 **I want to say I never want to do a chapter this long ever again, but I can't promise anything. Ugh…**

 **This chapter was something I was mulling over for a while because to me it needed to be done sooner or later.**

 **There are some of you guys that want drama, and to those people I say "Patience, there will be some later." Think of this chapter as a means of buildup that will become apparent later on.**

 **The main point of this chapter was the change that comes with a relationship. Change is ever-present, Hikigaya knows this, but the kind of change a relationship brings is something he's never dealt with before. As much as he'd like to stay the same, it just doesn't work that way. I thought of this struggle between his past and his present self would be interesting to focus on, because his relationship with Kaori goes against the basis of who he was.**

 **This chapter was really, really long, so if any of you have any questions send me a PM and I'll do my best to help you.**

 **If you liked this chapter, make sure to tell me with a review! If you didn't like it, review! Let me know! I'm aware that this chapter was slightly different than my others but don't fret! This was a needed bump on the road, things will go back to how they were in the next chapter!**

 **Oh, yeah I almost forgot! I was thinking of writing a sister fic for this story, one focusing on Orimoto instead of Hikigaya. I was thinking of having it take place in the café where she works, where she meets the various characters that Hikigaya has come across at Sōbu, and yes, that includes Yuigahama and Yukinoshita. I expect it to have some drama, but not** _ **too**_ **much, you dig? Will the events in that story be canon with this one? Maybe, maybe not. Let me know if you guys would like for me to go along with it!**

 **Thank you all for reading, and as always, have a good day!**


End file.
